The Circle - A Power Rangers Adventure
by Judge Joker
Summary: When demons return to Earth and begin their spree of murder and destruction, the duty to wage war upon them falls to five young adults, whose lives will from this day forth be turned upside down in ways they cannot begin to imagine. As they fight the physical demons of the underworld, they will also battle psychological demons of their own.
1. Angel City

Demons...

Some say they don't really exist - they've been confined to the worlds of childrens stories and mythology, and that there's no such things as monsters or creatures of the night. But demons do exist - they exist deep within ourselves. These are the ones we fight not with swords and armour but with confidence, esteem and a drive to overcome. We give them many names; depression, anger, hatred, loneliness...these are our demons.

Lies is another.

Lies in the form of what we teach our children - that the world is a safe place because there's no such thing as monsters. And yet there is - murderers, rapists, evil dictators bent on ruling the world - these are monsters; the ones that are remembered by history, which conveinently forgets events which cannot be rationally explained within the confines of a one-dimensional mind.  
We forget the wars, the massacres, the bloodshed and the evil which we cannot explain, but then do we forget the heroes - the heroes who waged war on those monsters, who stopped the massacres and bloodshed, cursing that evil to spend eternity where it belonged - in hell.

But now, the world is about to remember... 

* * *

If there was ever a night that could be described as perfect, it was this one.

The stars high above danced and twinkled against the pitch black sky, accompanied by the pale light of the full moon looming above Angel City, California. All this reflected beautifully in the dark waters at the city's main beach.

At this hour, the beach itself was normally void of life, only the crashing of the waves and distant music from the nightclub on the promenade would interrupt its silent serenity. On this night, however, things were far different.

A young blonde looked on in horror as she witnessed something which she simply could not believe. She watched through horrified eyes as two warriors battled for their very lives right before her. Well, one of them was clearly fighting; the other was simply being torn apart. The latter was a tall creature - inhumanly tall. It had dark red skin on its body with its lower body covered in blue. The other warrior was much shorter; also covered predominately in red, with a black and white strap across their body, and a large black visor on their helmet. This warrior was also thinner and wore a skirt, leading the young witness to believe that this warrior was female.

The seemingly stronger warrior slashed her sword across the body of the much larger opponent, causing it to spark with damage as it tumbled to the ground. Just as it began to regain its composure, the other warrior ran over towards it, slicing their weapon across it once more, sending it flying off towards the woman's right, once again sparking at it flew through the air.

"Welcome to Earth." called the standing warrior, resting the sword on her shoulder, keeping their attention on the monster.

Her voice was commanding, and warned that she meant business. Her accent was strong and aided her voice in commanding respect. The witness couldn't place it, but the young woman could tell that she was definitely not American.

She slowly stepped forward, her focus set firmly on the creature that had been on the receiving end of her beating. Within her, the fire was burning and her mind focused. This was her moment.

"Now go back to hell."

The young woman scrambled behind her savior, as a group of piranha creatures appeared from apparently out of nowhere to aid their leader.

The creature pointed towards the red warrior, and roared something incomprehensible to human ears. The monsters, however, must've understood perfectly as they hurdled themselves towards the Red Ranger without question.

"I was hoping you'd do that." the warrior said. The young woman couldn't be sure, but she thought that she heard a hint of glee and excitement within the hero's voice as she began running toward the incoming monsters.

As she swung her sword across the chest of the leading creature, its chest sparked with damage and it stumbled back to the ground. She then proceeded to land a kick on the second creature's head, instantly knocking it out before slamming her sword through the third with ease. She then turned her attention to the main creature, the excitement flowing through her body like a drug, the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the fire burning deep within her gut. She wanted it - she wanted it dead.

The monster began advancing upon her, determined to rip her limb from limb.  
Due to its seemingly far greater rage and apparent frustration, the by-standing young woman thought for an instant that the hero may not have much an easy time defeating this enemy as first appeared, but these doubts were soon washed away.

"Power Blade!" she called, as she began to spin the black disk located just below the blade of the weapon. "Burning Tornado!"

As she span the sword's disk, the young woman's eyes found themselves opening wider with awe as the weapon held by the warrior engulfed itself in a spiraling continuous wave of fire, just as the monster was about to reach the red ranger. The ranger, seeing this, twirled the sword to anger the flames, before striking the monster across the chest, causing him to spark multiple times before collapsing to the ground amiss an explosion the size of a small building.

As the red ranger re-sheathed the weapon, she glanced over at the cowering woman, and seeing that she was still in shock, decided to approach her.

"Don't worry." she spoke softly as she crouched down, coming to eye level with the huddled witness. "That thing won't be coming back."

The woman's only response was to look into the visor of the red ranger, her jaw still open from awe and shock. Red Ranger helped her back to her feet, holding her until she was able to keep her own balance.

"I don't understand." The witness said, her voice trembling as much as her entire body. "What were those things? What are you?"

The warrior stepped back slightly as she turned her head towards the sight of the explosion. "I'm..."

Underneath her helmet, she smirked as her heart rate slowed and the adrenaline left her body. Her mind calmed itself just as she turned to leave.

"Nobody." she spoke calmly. "I'm nobody." 

* * *

Outside was far from dead.

Inside was even further.

As the city's youth danced and partied to the music of their age, one such member of that youth - a black male - was only dancing his way around the crowd to make sure that he never dropped any of the drinks he was holding.  
As he made his way back to his friends, he smiled at his own success of making it there with all beverages intact. Darting his eyes over the table, he saw all four of his friends relaxing, laughing and generally enjoying themselves. One of them, the young Caucasian man held the attention of the three women, one Caucasian on his arm, one Asian and one Black.

"And then 'bam!' I laid one right in it's face!" he said, imitating a fight with both his voice, and his free arm as he lightly punched the air before him. "And then I warned it to leave this place and to never harm a living soul ever again!"

As everyone lightly laughed at the actions and story of the young man, one other woman perked up.

"No you didn't." the young Asian woman said in between giggles.

"Well...no..." the young man responded, uncomfortably. "Actually, I ran away screaming like a little girl. But I think I sent it a message."

"Yeah." the Black woman giggled. "A message that says Angel City is full of scardies and strange little men."

"Johnny!" the man greeted the Black man as he sat down opposite him. "Will you please tell Olivia and Misha to quit their yapping while I finish my story?"

"Y'know Trevor..." Johnny began as he glanced over at the Black woman beside him before turning his eyes back to the other man. "You'd make one heck of a superhero."

This obvious sarcasm got rounding laughs from Olivia and his cousin Misha, but left Trevor and their other female companion taken aback.

"Hey." the woman said. "Trevor would make a great superhero. Wouldn't you baby?"

"Mmm. Thank you." he responded as they pressed their lips together. "Ladies and Gentleman, that is how awesome my Michelle really is."

"Johnny!"

Johnny's attention immediately turned to Misha beside him, who's face was skewed up as she placed her glass down on the table.

"This is regular coke."

"Yeah?"

"I asked for a vodka and coke." he sighed as she shook her head, much to Johnny's dismay.

"Misha, you just turned 21." he said softly. "Look I don't want you dri-"

"Yeah, 21!" she barked back. "Perfectly legal drinking age. Why can't you just trust me to drink responsibly?"

The rest of the table fell silent as discomfort set in.

"Forget it." Misha pushed herself quickly to her feet and turned her eyes to the bar. "I'll get one myself."

As she made her way through the crowd towards the bar, Misha felt the anger in her. "Argh. Men..." she growled as she reached the bar.

"One Coke with vodka." she ordered to the bartender, flashing her ID as she did. As the bartender nodded, she turned her back on the bar and rested there, and out of the corner of her eye, noticed a lone blonde woman sitting stirring her drink.

"Men suck, huh?" she asked the stranger.

"That they do."

The stranger looked up at her, flashing a quick if somewhat awkward smile.  
Taking note of her accent, plus the fact that she was alone, Misha began to query the young woman.

"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked, making reference to the accent.

"No." the stranger responded. "Glasgow born and bred. Just moved here."

"Cool." Misha nodded. "Well, you'll love Angel City." she turned her eyes back over to the table where her friends and cousin sat, particularly glaring at Johnny. "It's got all the asshole, overprotective men you could ever ask for."

"Lovely." the stranger replied sarcastically, again flashing a quick smile.

"One vodka and coke."

Misha smiled as she accepted her drink from the bartender, closing her eyes as she felt the cool glass in her tightening grip against her warm skin.

"Hey," she spoke to the stranger. "I'm Misha, by the way."

She extended her hand for a handshake, which was accepted by the other woman.

"Stephanie." she responded, smiling again.

"If you want, you can join us." Misha darted her eyes back to the table for a quick second. "I mean, we're a decent bunch. Could help you get settled in."

"Oh..." Stephanie glanced over her shoulder. "Thanks, but…I'm actually here with somebody."

As her eyes scanned the room, they failed to locate the person she was looking for. Misha followed her glance.

"Oh that's okay." she said with a smile. "Just drop by if you change your mind."

"I might do that." Stephanie said. "Thanks."

"You have a good night."

As Misha began to make her way back over to her table, Stephanie returned to stirring her drink with her straw. It wasn't long, however, before she found herself joined by someone else.

"Woha." the new man said as he sat down beside her. "People in this city definitely know how to party."

She sighed, not lifting her gaze to him, instead keeping it firmly focused on the drink below. "Is that so?" she muttered.

"And what was that I just bore witness to?" The man asked as he sipped his drink. "A fine young lady asking another young lady such as yourself to join her and her friends. And I see that you bloody jumped at the chance to make some friends." he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he sipped again.

"Not here to make friends, Drew." She responded coldly as she finally looked at him with a face full of discontent.

"No but you do need to socialize a wee bit more."

He then glanced up, noticing that she continued to stare at him, her face looking almost empty of emotion. He placed his drink back down on the bar as he began to figure her out.

"What's the matter?" he queried, however, his only response was her simply staring back at him. For Drew, that was enough an answer as any words could ever be. He quickly looked around him, making sure that no-one was listening in before leaning in to her.

"...How many?"

"One." she responded, as she returned to stirring her drink. "It came with an army of Piranhi. Attacked a girl just outside at the beach there."

"Type?"

"No idea." she returned to stirring her drink. "Was too busy blowing the thing up."

"Well..." he sighed. "Assuming you're right and this place is the source...what're you going to do about it?"

Stephanie sighed, and waited for a split second before she hopped to her feet, her advanced height allowing her to remain eye level with the young man she was with.

"What I always do about it, baby brother. Kick their arses like there's no tomorrow." she said with a smirk as she leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, before taking his hand and guiding him off his own stool. "Now come on. The hotel should have the room ready by now."

Drew took his place beside his sister as they linked arms and began to trundle through the dancing crowd of young party go-ers towards the exit and towards the night outside.

"And don't ever call me a 'lady' again." remarked Steph. 

* * *

Not far from the nightclub stood the Ruttingdam hotel - an elderly building, small in size and even smaller in reputation. Deep inside, one of its many rooms lay very much dormant with all of its lights out and no life anywhere within. Only bags occupied the floor, awaiting the return of their owners.  
The door to this room clicked with the turn of a key, and slowly creaked open to reveal two people, silhouetted against the light of the corridor, until one of them reached in and activated the lights of the room.

"Room 21B." said Stephanie softly. "Guess this is it."

"Hope so or we're in some other poor bugger's room." commented Drew, just as softly. That is, until he seen the actual size of the room ""Aw Christ…" he glanced around. "It's...it's tiny, innit?"

As Stephanie walked further in, she too took note of the small size, and the general condition of the room. The wallpaper was peeling, the bathroom door was lying half open, looking like the lock has rusted away, and most noticeably, the main part of the room to which they had just entered was doubling as the bedroom.

"It's..." she said as she sat down on the bed nearest the window. "It's far from ideal, I know."

Drew could almost laugh at that statement. "Far from ideal?" he paraphrased.

"For God's sake woman it hasnae even got a TV." He sighed as he closed the door behind him and made his way towards the other bed.

"I know." Stephanie repeated as she rubbed her forehead. "But it's all we could afford."

"Aye I know." he sighed, slumping down onto the matress. "I just wish that things weren't like this."

Steph hopped to her feet and walked over to Drew, then crouched down so that she was eye level with him. "Hey, look at me." she said softly as she sat beside him, putting her arm around his shoulder. "I know things are tough, but we'll get through this. You know why?"

"Why's that?" he said unenthusiastically.

"Because we're in this together." She smiled at him. "You and me. That's all I need, Drew. You. My baby brother." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "We've never had much, but we've always had each other. That's all that matters, and if I think for one second that what I do places you in any kind of danger, then I'll back out."

"Steph, no..."

"Yes." she exclaimed. "I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt. You're my golden angel."

With that, he leaned over to her and placed his head on her shoulder, and she wrapped both her arms around him, making sure that he stayed there. 

* * *

The view was less than stellar.

The sound was even worse. If you listened carefully to each wave as it crashed against the rocky landscape, you could hear the sounds of the lost and the dammed souls trapped within here moaning and screaming.  
And these waves moaned and screamed, they were interrupted further by the presence of a passing barge, which itself was not much more of a comforting experience. Its sails hung high above, and resembled the skeleton of an angel. Its wooden decks creaked as it rocked over each wave of the blood-red ocean below. Inside the vessel, it's three occupants resided, almost peacefully. One of these occupants sat atop a rake of crates, stacked especially for her to sit as she strummed her harmonium, staring out into the red wilderness. The second occupant was a very stout creature with multiple tentacles drooping from his face. He was standing over a large book - almost as large as himself, making constant near-silent grunts as he did. The third resided in a separate room from the others, lying still and quiet, just as it had done for the past thousand-odd years.

The female creature turned her attention to the threshold leading to the room he rested within. Watching him slumber, if indirectly, she thought, was far better than staring out into the abyss that stretched to the horizon. At this stage, anything was better than that. Indeed, fate had not been kind to any of them. Despite, she still felt warmth in her heart when she stared at him. For the other creature, however, there was no such warmth.

"What are you doing?" she barked as she ceased strumming her instrument.

At first, it appeared as though the stout, octopus creature had not heard her as he remained fixated on the book before him.

"Working." he finally responded, his voice frail and quivering, almost sounding cold and aged.

The answer did not satisfy his female companion. "On what?!" She asked sternly, keeping her voice low so as to not disturb the resting creature, not that it would make much difference.

"I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to break the curse from the living world." he responded, keeping his eyes on the book.

"Be careful, Perak." The female turned her eyes back out of the window into  
the wilderness. "You almost sound hopeful."

"Dalas!" he rasped, finally turning to her, catching her attention once more.

"Some of the demons we have sent made it to the living word!"

Dalas watched as he waddled over to the window nearest to him, and grabbed the measuring stick placed against the wall next to it, then proceeding to drop it into the sea below.

"They have obviously done some good." he murmured. "The blood level has risen."

Dalas jumped to her feet. The news had her somewhat intrigued. Joining Perak at his side, she studied the sea below. "So the demons have killed some humans?" she asked.

Perak removed the stick. "Yes." Perak confirmed. "The only way for the sea to rise is if one of the demons spill the blood of humans, and the higher the ocean, the more powerful the demons we can send to Earth."  
Dalas continued looking out at the blood-red ocean below their vessel.

"There's something else." Perak stated.

Dalas turned her gaze to him.

"Of all the demons we have sent out," he started. "Not one of them has come back."

She then turned her attention back to the sea below. "Interesting." she muttered as she strummed her Harmonium once more. 

* * *

Drew McLauren didn't need an alarm clock.

As he felt something shake him back and forth, he slowly stirred away from his dreams of home back to a sobering reality, back to that tiny, television-less hotel room, and back to the sight of his older sister standing over him.

"Come on. Up!" she ordered. "It's after five."

"Aw you gotta be kidding me, man." he said as he rubbed his eyes. "I dinnae get to sleep until one!"

She smiled. "Sorry, Drew. I need you to get that demon tracking program running."

He groaned as he sat up. "At least.." he said before yawning. "Let's call room service for breakfast first, eh?" He reached for the phone, pulling the receiver off of the phone itself before noticing that the chord was broken. "Phone's broken." he sighed.

Steph giggled. "I know. I went down and ordered earlier. They'll bring something up soon."

"Alright." he said before yawning again. "Then I'll at least go for a shower first. That is if this place has ever heard of running water."

She signaled to him that he was clear to do so.

"How long you been up?" he asked as he turned on the water.

She glanced over at her phone, proudly displaying the time of 05:07. "About a half-hour or so." she sat before sitting back down on her bed and rummaging through an open backpack and pulling out a fresh pair of black shoes.

A few minutes later, Drew reemerged from the bathroom much fresher and alert than he was when he went in. He glanced over to his bed where he saw his black laptop sitting awaiting him, and his sister sitting on her own bed fumbling through one of the many backpacks they had brought with them.

"When's room service actually supposed to get here?" he asked.

"I don't know, baby." she said, continuing to fumble through the bag. "Ah!"

Drew watched as she eventually began to remove things from it, starting with a small computer keyboard and a mouse. She then pointed to one of the larger wheel bags.

"The hard drive and monitor are in there."

He sighed as he looked over to the bag that she was pointing at, knowing fine well what she was wanting him to do.

"Steph?"

"Baby?"

"...Can I at least have a coffee first?" 

* * *

If the night before was beautiful, the day after could only be better.  
As the midday sun gleamed high over the city, residents were already going about their day, some working, others relaxing. In fact, in his home, one such resident was even doing both.

Jonathan Tucker fumbled around his small kitchen. At one end of the small room, he kept an eye on a frying pan with two eggs sizzling inside, and at the other, he planted two tea spoonfuls of coffee grains into two waiting mugs, and in between poured cereal into two waiting bowls. Johnny was certainly the morning person of the house. Not that he had much competition in that manner.

In all the rush, he found time to glance up at the door to the room of his younger cousin, who's snoring almost drowned out the television playing in the living room.

Minutes later, he found himself lightly knocking on that very door in a vain attempt to waken her. "Misha?" he called. "Misha?"

When he got no response, he lightly pushed the door open, continuing to call her name as he approached the bed where he assumed that she was. In fact, if it wasn't for the snoring, he wouldn't be able to tell she was even in there at all, but sure enough, she was - hidden by her large duvet which surrounded her like an ocean.

"Misha?" he called again, this time slightly louder, accompanied by lightly shaking her until she began to stir.

"Uhh what?" she moaned, groggily. "Johnny it's not even nine yet."

"It's twelve." he explained.

"What?!" Misha yelled as she instantly sat up. "I'm late for work!"

"It's Saturday, you moron." he replied with a giggle, much to her annoyance. "You don't work Saturdays."

"Right..." she slowly rubbed her eyes, attempting to wipe away the tiredness.

"Come on. I got breakfast all ready." he guided her towards her doorway and out into the living room where the smell of fresh eggs and coffee were enough to perk her up.

"Mmmm." she murmured as she walked over to the counter between the kitchen and living room as the smell of fresh eggs and coffee passed her nostrils. "Anything to do with last night?"

Johnny sighed as he placed her coffee and cereal down on the counter. "Look I know I'm protective of you."

"_Over_protective." Misha corrected as Johnny placed down her egg sandwich.

He leaned back against the counter, sipping his coffee. "I just worry about you, is all."

"Don't worry about me." Misha replied with a smile as she turned to walk towards the television. As she watched it, her thoughts began to change towards a different topic. "Worry about that..."

On the television, images played of the local beach, now looking as peaceful and welcoming as ever with its golden sand and deep blue waters, but the reporter on screen was describing a very different setting.

"Another of those monster attacks?" Johnny asked, looking on from the kitchen.

"Yeah." Misha responded, shoving the egg sandwich down her throat. "Something about a survivor."

"Well that's new." Johnny grabbed his plates and began walking towards his cousin. "You don't believe that it's actual monsters, do you?"

"I believe it's Angel City's finest." she scoffed, swallowing the sandwich. "So yeah, monsters it is."

Johnny thought it best to change topic - talking about monsters and attacks was far from his ideal morning conversation.

"So what're you up to today?"

"Oh I was going to meet Olivia and hang out." his cousin replied, now scoffing cereal into her mouth. "But she said something about a book store so I'm not gonna."

Johnny couldn't help but laugh a bit. at her almost care-free attitude, contrasting completely with how she was the night before.

"Besides," she continued, between spoonfuls of cereal. "There's that Beach Party tonight, remember? Gotta get ready for it."

"Y'know what?" he began, smiling at her. "I can't help but love you sometimes."

"Sometimes?" she asked, shooting him a playful glare. "Anyway, I'm sure Livvy will be just fine on her own." 

* * *

Olivia was on her own. Not that it bothered her much.

The Asian woman smiled as she walked along one of the many streets of Angel City, glancing down at her empty coffee cup in her hand as she did. She knew books weren't of much interest to Misha - or indeed any of her friends- and was in fact quite glad that she never tagged along, giving Olivia time to enjoy her own company.

As she walked past one of the city's sidewalk bins, she dropped her cup in and continued walking, thinking to herself how quiet the street actually was.

Well, almost quiet.

"Hey Liv!"

Her attention was instantly drawn to the source of her name, and she smiled when she saw her long-time friend Trevor Logan making his way towards her.

So much for her own company, she thought, not that Trevor's presence was to her annoyance.

"Hey!" she said cheerfully, greeting him with a hug. "What's my Trevvy-wevvy doing out here?"

"Okay, first of all..." he began, breaking the hug. "That name's reserved solely for Michelle."

Olivia pouted.

"Secondly, I was heading to a computer store around the corner. Looking to get myself some new gizmos."

"Gizmos?" she quoted as they began walking together.

"Well...what're you doing out here?"

"Oh!" Olivia jumped slightly with excitement. "New book shop I seen a few days ago. Just over there!"

A large grin crossed her face as she pointed the new bookstore across the street, just waiting for her to enter and spend, spend, spend.

"Laura's Bookshelf." Trevor muttered. "Well, I'll go with you if you go with me."

"Deal!"

As they crossed the road between them and the shop, they noted how there was no light emanating from within. This set some doubt in Trevor's mind as to whether the store was even open.

"Looks closed." he said.

This, however, did not stop Olivia from pushing the door open, revealing that it was unlocked. Excitedly, she creped in followed by a reluctant Trevor.

"Hello?" called Olivia. "Anyone here?"

Glancing around, Trevor could see that there was definitely little light, only a small table lamp on the counter perched over a reasonably large and presumably old book. The store itself was musty, and there was a sense of age within the air; almost as if each book had existed for centuries and had all come together for some mystical cause. This sent shivers down Trevor's spine.

Looking up, he saw a balcony extending around the shop like a ring, connected to the ground floor via spiral staircase at the far end of the shop. The wall alongside the balcony was bare, adorned with the same pale blue colour that covered the rest of the walls. He also noted two closed doors next to one another, and another two on the far end, therefore giving a mirror-effect. And yet still he felt a sense of unease in his stomach.

"Look maybe we should just leave, huh?"

Olivia, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. She was ogling at the books on the shelf with interest, glancing over books with names such as "A history of Witchcraft" and "Vampyri", all adding to her excitement and glee. The books themselves were neatly lined up on the shelf, in no apparent order that she could tell, but she assumed it was likely by year that they were published or something along those lines. They also came in only three colours - red, blue and brown, adding to the mystical feel in the air.

Then she turned back over towards the counter.

"Trev, look at this!" Olivia said as she scampered over to it, eyeing the large, open book already sitting there, almost as if it was waiting for her. As she glanced over the off-white pages, her eyes widened with glee. "This must be like really old. I don't even recognize the language." She said quietly, flipping through the pages until one in particular caught her eye. She stared for a second at the picture of a fish-shaped warrior, before continuing to flip through the pages, before stopping at another a few seconds later.  
Trevor glanced around nervously some more. Something about this place didn't sit well with him. This was made even worse when Olivia began reading aloud.

"Lit mi chetchum,

Un giarga margar..."

This was making Trevor more uncomfortable.

"Hey, should you be reading that out loud?" he asked. Olivia, however, took no notice and continued reading.

"Tiraum ún falu

Godes demán

Shiagi Mentos

Régairi Circlé..."

Olivia glanced over at Trevor, who simply looked on in confusion. However, seconds later their view of one another was suddenly interrupted. Oliva was thrust back by a sudden, blinding flash of light which sent her crashing into the wall behind her, dazing her for a few seconds. She coughed loudly, and shook her head, trying to shake the new feeling of nebulousness that had set in. Eventually, she lifted her head up, expecting to see Trevor standing over her to help her back to her feet.

He wasn't.

* * *

Back in their home, Misha and Johnny were to be found still in front of their television. Misha was drifting in and out of sleep, while Johnny's eyes were focused on the soccer replay reel playing on the set itself.

Until they found themselves blinded.

Johnny and Misha were thrust side-wards to opposite ends of the sofa, separated from one another as a brilliant flash of light took them both aback.

Misha screamed as she covered her eyes in the exact moment it happened, while Johnny was left without any time to react at all.

After a few seconds of nothingness, both shared a concerned stare.

Concerned for the well-being of the other, and concerned about what they had just experienced. Johnny felt it best to break the silence, saying what both of them were thinking.

"What the hell was that?" he muttered. 

* * *

"What the hell was that?!"

Trevor yelled as he began to push himself into a sitting position. He too had been thrust backwards by a blinding light of an origin which was not immediately obvious.

The response was less than what he had hoped for.

"Uh oh." muttered Olivia, as she pushed herself up the wall to regain her stance, attracting a concerned look from a still hazy Trevor. "I think that might have been some kind of spell."

"Spell?!" Trevor quoted, completely in shock. "As in 'magic' spell?"

She nodded, although he struggled to make it out completely. That didn't stop him from knowing her answer.

"Livvy, what did you do?"

"What are you doing?"

Both sets of eyes darted to the landing above them - to the balcony, upon which stood a young woman Despite her hazy eyes, Olivia could see that this woman appeared younger than her -probably around 20 or so- with rich brown hair and was holding a steaming cup of coffee. The newcomer darted towards, and then down the spiral staircase, headed directly for the counter before Olivia.

"I'm sorry, I..." Olivia began as she felt her senses slowly begin to return to her.

"That's my personal book." the young stranger said, as she reached the counter. "It's not for sale. Please see the shelves for one of many which are." She raised her arm out behind her, pointing to the shelves on the wall.

Between her and that wall, Trevor pushed himself to his feet slowly, using all of his might to keep his balance as he shook his head again. "Actually...I think...think we're gonna go."

A very nauseous Olivia nodded as she began heading for the door, stopping only for a second to ensure that she did not lose her own balance.

Without saying anything further, she and Trevor pulled open the single frame door and quickly departed the store, leaving the mysterious woman alone, staring though the door though which the two had just departed. 

* * *

The ocean below was as silent as a haunted house on Halloween. The moaning and groaning seemed louder than ever, almost as if those lost and damned souls were reacting to something - something powerful; so powerful as to cause the dead unrest.

Its waters were also in disarray. They were as rough as they had ever been, crashing against not only any aspect of land they could find, but also against - and causing much a rough sail for - The Barge of the Undead.

On board, Dalas found herself on the deck, screaming in agony and clutching her head with both hands as she felt a stabbing pain shoot through it with the force of a lightning bolt. This was in complete contrast to her usual quiet and calculating demina, and caused Perak both confusion and even panic.

"What is this?!" he yelled with his raspy voice, staggering towards the window as the vessel rocked up and down over the waves. As he made it, he rested both hands on the edge of the empty window for balance, sticking his face overboard, almost as if he was looking into the very faces of those moaning souls. "What's going on?!"

Then, as suddenly as it came, the moaning stopped, as did the rough waters and Dalas' screaming. Instead, she was left panting heavily as her body began to recuperate from the traumatic experience it had just suffered, and she slowly pulled herself back onto the crate which she usually sat atop.

"It's.." she began, still attempting to catch her breath. "It's them."

"What?" Perak wheezed back, attracting her eyes over to his own. He began waddling over to her. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" she snapped back, still feeling a twinge of pain as her companion stopped in his tracks. "One of them cast d the activation spell. I detected the magic."

"And so did they." Perak noted, referring to the souls below as he glanced over to the large window to his right as he - the very same that Dalas had spent many a century staring out of.

"Perak this is serious!" she growled, her voice full of hatred and bloodlust, pulling herself back off the crate and grabbing the smaller creature by his shoulders, hoping that he would provide her with something she could use to satisfy her desire for causing pain.

"I know." the elder creature retorted, pulling himself free of her grasp. He turned and waddled back over to his books on the far end of the room. Dalas watched as he began rummaging through one of them. "Still, you did say 'activation' spell..." he slowly turned back to her. "Didn't you?"

Slowly, she nodded. "Yes."

"That allows us an advantage." he responded wheezily as he returned his gaze to the book he held in both his hands. "The Piranhi can smell the mystical energies of demons, witches..." he coughed. "Or even The Circle."

Dalas perked up. Perak's words struck a chord with her, and what's more, gave her an idea. She pushed herself off the crate with ease, making sure to pick up her harmonium from the deck before walking over to the large window.

"Piranhi!" she yelled, opening her arms to summon the demonic creatures from the depths of the crimson ocean below the vessel upon which she stood.

Dalas and Perak watched as the dark red waters began to sizzle and torrents of air bubbles surfaced. From these pools of bubbles stemmed a hazy, almost mystical stream of smoke. These then merged into one and darted towards the vessel, shooting past Dalas and materializing behind her in the form of ten of the demonic foot soldiers that she had just summoned. The skin of the creatures matched the deep crimson of the ocean. This, along with their piranha-shaped heads made them look as menacing and dangerous as they actually were. Their yellow armor and brown leg stalkings covered their main body, giving them a formidable fighting attire. Each of them bowed their heads as Dalas turned to them, awaiting her instructions.

"You will go to Earth." she ordered them, waving her hand over them as if it allowed her more power over them than she already had. "Go there and seek out The Circle."

Each creature kept its head bowed.

"Seek them." Dalas continued. "Find them. Kill them."

The creatures nodded and began making their way back out the window. As each of the creatures leapt overboard, back into the blood ocean from which they came, Perak kept his eye on his female companion.

"Still," he began, his voice as raspy as ever. "This doesn't explain why we've heard nothing from any previous demon we've sent out."

Then it hut him.

"Do you suppose one of them has been active already?"

"Humph." Dalas said as she brought her harmonium up, holding it once more in both her hands and strummed it once more. 

* * *

The beach can be a lovely place sometimes.

The beachside cafe, however, was even lovelier.  
Late afternoon saw a group of young adults sat around one of its small, white outdoor tables - a group of people who should be enjoying their day, relaxing in the sun with each other, and yet not one of them had a smile on their faces.

"Wait, you guys too?" Johnny asked curiously, leaning in.

"'Too'?" Trevor quoted. "It happened after Livvy here did some magic mumbo-jumbo and sent me crashing to the floor!"

This caused Johnny to smile slightly, both in confusion and in somewhat entertainment at Trevor's choice of words.

"Magic?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

Misha looked on with interest, showing little signs of seeing the humorous side like her cousin, while Olivia kept her head down.

"It's not like I meant to." she muttered.

"I know." Trevor said, glancing over at her.

"Guys."

All eyes fell back on Johnny, who was still sitting with a slight grin on his face. "Magic? Are you kidding me?"

"Well how about you explain it then, genius?" Trevor snapped back. "We all suddenly experience this great flash of light, even though we were at different ends of the city when it happened and we all experienced it after she finished reading from this weird book."

"Wait..." Misha began, attracting the attention to her. "Book? That new bookstore?"

"Yeah." Trevor nodded. "There's something really weird about that place."

"I'll say." Johnny remarked, still smiling. "You going into a book store, Trev? That is weird."

Trevor scowled, as did Misha.

"Don't be an ass. " she ordered, keeping her tone cool yet commanding, causing Johnny to shoot her a scowl of his own. "Livvy." She reached under the table and placed her hand on Olivia's leg to get her attention.

Olivia finally lifted her head, glancing into Misha's welcoming and forgiving eyes.

"Why don't you take us to that bookstore? Whatever happened, we might get answers there."

Olivia began to pull herself up, as did the others.

"Yeah, there was this weird store-keeper girl." Trevor said. "Willing to bet she has those answers."

Just as the group were about to make their departure, they were interrupted by a series of screams coming from the cafe. As they each turned to see what was going on, they each saw something they did not ever expect.  
The Piranhi slowly advanced upon the group, their eyes set on them like they were hunters homing in on a vulnerable prey. In a way, they actually were.

The group of demonic creatures waved their swords and yelled something only they could comprehend, much to the terror of the group.

"Run!" Johnny screamed as the group wasted no time in following his command. However, the creatures were instantly in pursuit, and it took them little time to catch up the fleeing humans.

Misha's heart raced as fast as her legs. Unfortunately, her legs gave way and she tumbled to the ground, causing the others to stop, knowing that one of their own was down.

"Misha!" Johnny called as he ran back to her in the direction of the oncoming creatures, picking her up just as they were on top of them.

He pushed her away again as one of the monsters swiped down at them with its weapon, missing each of them by inches. Johnny ducked and dogged various swipes of the sword, before catching it in both hands. The monster began to overpower him, lowing it's sword to his face as he attempted to push it back. Using all of his might, he thrust the monster backwards, freeing himself, before landing a punch square in it's face, knocking it to the ground. Unfortunately, he never saw another of the creatures heading towards him until it tackled him to the ground.

Misha, meanwhile, was still ducking and screaming. She attempted running from the one swiping at her, until she found two others blocking her path.  
Seeing no other way out, Misha thought on a new plan, and kicked the monster that had been swiping at her. The creature stumbled back, and it's friends who had attempted to stop Misha's escape decided to enter the fray and grappled her. They were holding her arms back as she waved her legs, attempting to find the momentum to free herself. They then threw her to the ground with quite some force like she was a rag doll.

Trevor was also attempting to avoid the monsters attacking him. He too was unsuccessful as one kicked him in the gut, making him stagger back, yet retain his balance. He had little time to recover as the creature that kicked him grabbed his shoulders and tossed him aside with ease.

Olivia screamed as she ducked an attempted swipe by one of the monsters before attempting to run away, her entire body trembling from fear. She got a few steps before one creature grabbed her by the hair, causing her head to snap back in agony. The creature then kicked her square in the chest, sending her crashing to the ground.

As the monsters re-gathered together before them, the humans regrouped, each of their bodies still screaming in pain from the beating they just took.

"What'll we do?!" screamed Misha as loud as she possibly could, given her beaten body.

Glancing over his shoulder, Trevor found out exactly what they were to do.

"Plan A." he responded, between heavy breaths. "Run!"  
Once again the humans wasted little time in responding to that command. The group took off with such force, finding the adrenaline within helping them gather the energy for speed - their flight instinct kicking to life.  
The Piranhi were about to get back into hot pursuit of their prey and fulfill the mission set to them by Dalas, however, just as they were about to follow the humans, they instead found their bodies light up with sparks as if they had been electrocuted by a lightning bolt.

A lightning bolt of fire.

Seeing that the humans were clear of the fray, Red Ranger leaped from her spot atop one of the promenade's many buildings, welding her power blade in her right hand. She somersaulted through the air, and upon landing, rolled over her shoulders and instantly began striking at the monsters. Two of the creatures brought their own swords down upon her, but she blocked with her own, before mustering some of her arm strength to over-power them, then swiping her weapon across their chests, sending them into an array of sparks.

Without turning, she stabbed a Piranhi behind her before it had the chance to attack, then removed the weapon, kicking away another of the soldiers as she did, before swiping the weapon across its neck, instantly beheading the creature. Turning to the other creatures who had regrouped, Red Ranger began spinning the disk on her weapon's hilt.

"Power Blade!" she called. "Burning Tornado!"

As the flames spiraled up the blade of the weapon, she slashed it through the air, sending a wave of intense fire that incinerated the remaining monsters with ease.

Now that she finished off the last Piranhi, each of them erupted into its own small explosion, indicating to her that the battle was over.

Beneath her fiery red helmet, Stephanie breathed a quiet yet forceful sigh of relief. No-one had needlessly died here today, and for that, she was eternally grateful. She was also grateful for something else.

She raised her right hand to the side of her helmet, towards her ear and tapped the cold red material.  
"Drew." she spoke, attempting to garner the attention of her younger brother.  
"You there?"

Though Drew had boasted to her that his communication system was state-of-the-art, he delayed response from her brother made her wonder just how true that statement was, or if the delay was just Drew being Drew.

After only a second which seemed to last much longer in her mind, she heard the response which she had been hoping for.

"I'm here." Drew confirmed his tone initially quite serious and on-task. Quite the opposite of what Drew normally was when demonic activity was not involved.

She smiled slightly at his response, if for little reason than knowing that he wouldn't dare be anywhere else but in front of that computer of his tracking the action. "Your program worked like a charm." she noted.

"They were there?" he queried.

"They were there..."

She turned her head back to where the monsters had been moments earlier as they exploded, as her mind began working. She recalled the events of the previous few minutes in as best detail as she could, and felt a growing sense of concern in her gut. She turned her head and stared out in the direction which the group of humans had taken off in. Her mind continued its work as she recalled watching how the demons had singled them out within what was a reasonably busy area, and she began to wonder why. 

* * *

Laura's Bookshelf was normally a quiet store. Not to say that it never had its fair share of custom for a store of its caliber, but it was quiet enough to be solitude for those wishing to escape the bustling lifestyle of Angel City.  
That was about to change.

Olivia Guyver thundered the door open, catching the attention of the sole inhabitant of the entire store as she and her friends poured in, clearly out of breath and scared out of their wits.

The storekeeper, whom both Olivia and Trevor recognized as the mysterious girl from before, was descending the staircase with a handful of books when it happened. The recognition was likewise.

"You again." she greeted cooly, peering over her books as she stopped on the stairs. "Did you forget something?"

"Yeah." responded a much out-of-breath Trevor. "We forgot to ask you what the hell is going on!"

The response he received was less than what he was looking for. "I don't know what you're talking about." This, teamed with her retaining of her cool tone began to grate Trevor's nerves.

"The hell you don't!" he yelled, gesturing towards the counter where the book Olivia read from earlier remained, this time completely closed. "Olivia here cast a freaking magic spell then we get attacked by some kind of demonic creatures!"

As soon as these words left Trevor's mouth the stranger's demina completely changed. The blood seemed to drain from her face as she lowered her handful of books.

"Demonic creatures?" she quietly asked.

"Yeah." Misha squealed. "Giant fish monster things!"  
The stranger's eyes drifted away from them as she entered deep thought. Now she understood what the group were talking about.  
"Piranhi..."

"And I saw those things before!" Olivia yelled at the keeper, just as the latter darted down the remaining stairs and placed her books upon the counter before rummaging through the main book which Olivia had earlier read through. "I saw it in that book!"

The keeper looked up again, this time locking eyes squarely with Olivia.  
"You read this book?" She asked.

Olivia scratched her head, both in confusion and embarrassment. "Well...yeah. I mean it was there and...and stuff..."

The stranger shook her head. "No I mean, you read this. This book can only be read by..."

She looked off to the side, again deep in thought, only to instantly return her eyes to the group of individuals before her. Despite, she quietly thought aloud, although just loud enough for each of them to hear her. "...by a chosen few..."

"Chosen few?" Johnny finally spoke up, gaining the attention of the stranger for just a split second before she returned to her book, rummaging through the pages once more.

"The chosen few..." she began, keeping her eyes down on the book before her as she spoke. "A group of elite humans chosen to defend the Earth against demonic threats."

Finally, she found the page she was looking for and returned her gaze to those before her.

"In ancient times, that group was known as 'The Circle'. They waged war on the demons and sealed the worst of them to the depths of hell."

The group just started at her as she continued her story.

"Those demons you encountered - the Piranhi - are basic foot soldiers usually created by an Emptháa Demon..." she glanced back down at the book again. I'm only aware of one Emptháa in existence."

"Wait."

All eyes fell on a very confused Misha, who raised her hand up slightly almost as if she were in a classroom, wishing a teacher's attention - in fact, that's actually how she felt. "What does this mean for, well, us?"

"You." The stranger responded, standing up straight as a small smile crept over her young face. "You are that chosen few."

This did nothing for solving the confusion experienced by each of the group, as well noted by heir facial expressions and general body language.  
Noting this, the stranger continued. "The Piranhi can sense mystical energy given off after a spell is cast. They can, in essence, smell mystical energies."  
Olivia glanced over her shoulder to her friends just as something clicked in her mind. "That would explain why they came right after us."  
The girl nodded.

"The spell you cast" she continued. "That activated your powers."

"Powers?" Trevor pondered. "What powers? I didn't see any powers."

"That's because you haven't harnessed them." The strange girl disappeared beneath the counter for merely a second. "To do that..."  
She popped back up again, placing upon the counter a large, black steel case.

"You'll need these."

The locks of the case clicked as the girl undone them, before twirling it around and pulling the upper half back, revealing inside four red and black clamshell phones encased in black foam.

"These," she began, motioning for each of the group to collect one of the devices. "These are your morphers. They are your keys to accessing your weapons and armour, as well as the vast interweb of knowledge that will be at your disposal."

Each of the group marveled at the devices in their hand. They turned them around in their hands, passed them from hand to hand and inspected them up close, all in amazement. Johnny, however, remained somewhat skeptical.

"And how do we access these 'powers'?"

"Flip the device out, and use the activation phrase 'Summon The Circle'." The stranger calmly replied, closing over the now empty case. "The next time the demons attack, use the morphers. Trust me, you won't regret it."

Johnny took a look over at his friends, seeing in their eyes that each was just as dumbfounded as he was, but they seemed to be much more open to the entire scenario than him. Of course, Olivia and Trevor were here when this all began, and all of them had been attacked by strange monsters, but he was still left with a few questions.

"Trust you?" he asked rhetorically. "We don't even know who you are."

In response, Olivia leaned back to him and began whispering. "That'll be Laura." she said. "As in 'Laura's Bookshelf' - the store we're in."

"Oh..." Johnny replied, glancing over at Laura who simply stared back while nodding ever so slightly to confirm Olivia's answer.

Laura puffed her cheeks as she slowly walked around the counter towards the group, breathing a heavy sigh as she did. "We still have one problem, however."

The group locked eyes with her, each of them clearly wishing to know what that problem happened to be.

"And what's that?" Olivia asked.

"Your morphers," Laura began. "They will mask your mystical scent. The Piranhi won't be able to track you down."

"Well that's a good thing...isn't it?" queried an uncertain Trevor.

"No!" Laura shot back sternly. "They look for you, they can't find you, and they get frustrated and decide to satisfy themselves in other ways." She darted her eyes across the group. "Most likely finding a group of innocent people to terrorize."

As each of them lowered their eyes to think, Misha's grew wide almost instantly. She had it. She knew. "The Beach Party!" she exclaimed. "Tonight at sunset. That's where they're going to be!"

"Then that's where you're going to be." Laura explained. "Sunset isn't long away now. You better go."

Reluctantly, the group began filtering out, one by one. First Misha, then Trevor, followed closely by Olivia. Johnny remained still in his very spot, his eyes locked with Laura's only for a few seconds, but long enough to send a message - he never quite trusted her, but eventually, he too left, following his friends out into the evening light, and into what he perceived as complete uncertainty. 

* * *

"They should be back by now!"

Dalas grumbled as she smacked her hand down hard against the wooden crate which she sat atop. She was angry, but also concerned that her soldiers had not reported in. She knew if they had succeeded, they would have done just that. Therefore, there was only one possible reason for their silence.

"Perhaps they were defeated." Perak replied, placing down his favourite book on his own crate which he used to store each of his books, before turning to her. Dalas glared back at him - she knew he was right of course, but she didn't want to hear it, least of all from him.

She jumped off the crate and walked back over to her favourite window, eyeing the blood ocean below, before casting her arms out to her side as before, raising her head slightly as she spoke.

"Depths of the Blood!" she yelled. "I summon a soldier to lead my army."

Upon her command, the waves of the ocean began to pick up. Dalas remained rooted in her spot with her arms extended, while Perak watched on. One of the waves gained so much height that it crashed through the window, but completely bypassed Dalas, missing her head by mere inches. As she turned around, she saw that the wave had resulted in exactly what she had asked for.

The new arrival was tall. Predominately black with silver chest and head armour, some of that armour extending out on the right side of its head to form a short horn, and on the left shoulder to form a two larger horns. Its eyes, however, appeared the most dangers - small, cold and as red as the oceans below.

Behind the creature stood a small army of Piranhi. Like the creature before them, they stood silent, head lowered and awaiting their new mission.  
Dalas wasted little time in giving them that very mission.

"You," she began, walking towards the lead monster. "You will take the Piranhi to Earth. Your goal is simple - find a group of humans and attack them. Use them to lure out The Circle."

Silently, the creature nodded and bowed in respect for Dalas' order, before walking over to the window through which it arrived and leaping overboard, followed closely by the demonic foot soldiers.

"Dalas" Perak wheezed as he stared at her from the other side of the room. "If

The Circle have only just been activated, then what do you believe happened to the other demons we've sent out?"

She glanced over at him. "That's a Vorkah demon." she said coldly, referring to the lead creature she had just dispatched. "It'll take much power to destroy, so be ready for it to return with the information you seek." 

* * *

As the sun lowered over the horizon of Angel City, the city's beach found itself cast under a red sky, an eerie omen of the events about to take place.

None present, however, were aware. Instead, they danced to the loud music projected from a DJ station and consumed the beverages they had either brought with them or bought at the beachside cafe. The youths were happy, enjoying themselves, generally spending a Saturday night partying in one of the most beautiful spots of the city. All in all, it was a perfectly average evening.

That is, of course, until someone screamed.

The Vorkah demon was intent on having a party of its very own as it and the Piranhi instantly began their assault. The youths spent little time staying around, as they began running and scurrying away from the new threat that was apparently there to see to their deaths, and this was not something any of the civilians wished upon themselves as they fled in the opposite direction from which the newcomers were advancing from.

Except not all of them were running away from the action.

Johnny, Misha, Olivia and Trevor ran through the crowd, heading right for the demonic army wrecking havoc. Once through the crowds, they stopped, eyeing the monsters before them. The monsters all turned to face them.

"Hey." Trevor spoke as he pointed to the lead monster. "Don't remember that guy before."

"Yeah you'd remember him." confirmed a rather nervous Olivia. "He's all big and evil and stuff."

Misha smirked as she glanced over to her friends, Olivia and Trevor to her left and Johnny to her right. "Well let's do it then!" she said, flashing her new morpher, resulting in not only growls from the monsters, who simply waited to understand what was going on, but also in a strange look from Johnny.

"What?" she asked. "Let's do it!"

"Fine." he muttered, pulling out his own morpher, as Olivia and Trevor did the same before all four flipped them into phone position. . "Ready?" he asked, pulling back his arm. This in turn resulted in similar looks from the others for only a second.

"Ready." They all responded together.

Each brought their arms over their chest in a cross, before swiping them back out to their sides, activating the morphers.

"Summon The Circle!"

The creatures shielded their eyes from the brilliant flash of light for merely a second. When they looked back, they saw that the humans had gone, now replaced by four coloured and armed warriors.

Each of the new rangers marveled at their new coloured suits as they felt an incredible flow of power pulse through each of their bodies. The monster, however, gave them little time to enjoy it, raising its arm out and pointing to the rangers. While it remained silent, the Piranhi knew exactly what to do, and they began hurdling themselves at the new warriors.

Johnny - The Blue Ranger - brought his fist out before him. "Alright, let's send these things packing!" he roared, before running towards them, followed closely by each of his friends.

Blue Ranger flipped over one Piranhi and upon landing, blocked an attempted punch from another with his wrist, scoring a kick square to its head. He then twirled around, caught another of the creatures by the wrist and punched it in the face, sending it falling back to the ground. As another came at him, he swiftly dogged it, opening his belt buckle to remove a large black disk and attaching it to the handle of the weapon sheathed at his side.  
Upon removing the weapon, he began spinning the disk wildly.

"Power Blade!" he roared. "Aquatic Storm!"

The blade of the weapon glowed a bright blue as blue flames encircled it. He then slashed the weapon through the air, causing it to send out a powerful wave of blue energized water which upon impact sent the Piranhi into a flurry of sparks, and some fell to their ends.

Yellow Ranger - Misha - was scoring kicks all round. She blocked an attempted swipe at her gut with her right leg, mustering all her leg strength to kick the monster away, before instantly using the same leg to attack another incoming demon. This one, however, caught the kick, and Misha used her remaining leg to push herself off the ground and kick the demon on the back of the head, freeing herself and bringing the monster down.

"Oh now _this_ is a party, huh?"

She then opened her own buckle and attached the disk she found there to the hilt of her weapon, unsheathing it right after and began spinning the disk.

"Power Blade! Earth Fury!"

The blade erupted in a glowing yellow energy as she swung it through the air, sending a yellow shockwave towards her opponents. Upon impact, it turned the Piranhi to stone for a mere instant until they shattered.  
Pink Ranger - Olivia - had already unsheathed her sword, swinging wildly at anything that moved. She clashed swords with one Piranhi, before kicking it back and swiping the weapon across the chest of the demon.

"This is **awesome!**" she exclaimed with glee. She had no time to rest, however, as she rolled out of the way of another, striking her sword against the legs of this one causing it to fall to it's knees, just as she kicked it back. She began spinning the black disk on the hilt of her blade.

"Power Blade! Hurricane Spiral!"

As the bade glowed a bright pink, Pink Ranger slashed it through the air towards the army of demons, causing a wave of pink energy to thunder towards them at light speed, giving them no time to escape as they were incinerated upon impact.

On the other side of the battlefield, Green Ranger - Trevor - swung his fist at a Piranhi, who attempted to block with its sword. The weapon, however, was shattered upon impact. He then punched the creature in the jaw, before twirling out of the way of another's attempted shot, squealing an extended 'Woo' as he did. He opened his buckle and placed the disk on the hilt of the sword at his side, before removing the weapon.

"Power Blade!" he called, spinning the disk. "Forest Thunder!"

He slashed the weapon through the air as a green surge of electrical green energy swiped his opponents down with ease.

As Pink, Yellow and Green Rangers regrouped, each of them high fived one another, before they heard Johnny scream in both pain and terror. Looking over, they saw him being manhandled by the terrifying Vorkah demon, which was barely breaking a sweat.

"Hey!" Pink Ranger screamed as each of them took a battle stance.

The demon's response was to hold Johnny down with its foot and raise its hand, sending a stream of electric energy towards the other rangers, causing their new suits to erupt into a series of sparks as they fell to the ground in pain.

There was nothing for it to fear. These newcomers posed little threat and would be easily wiped out. Nothing they could do would stop that.  
Nothing they could do.

The demon then found itself erupting with damage, thrown back and thus freeing Blue Ranger from under its heavy body. As the creature stumbled back, each of the new rangers began searching for the source of what had just saved them from a likely death. They didn't have to look very far to find it.

Red Ranger somersaulted over their heads and landed with might between them and the monster. Her attention was completely fixated on the demonic creature before her - the very one that she had just sent a message to.

Beneath each of their helmets, the new rangers eyes went wide and their jaw dropped. After all, Laura had not informed them that there was another ranger.

"What?!" Trevor muttered.

Yellow Ranger glanced over at him. "Another one?"

As their minds raced with questions and their eyes looked on in awe, Red Ranger raised her Power Blade and began spinning the disk attacked.  
However, instead of a launching an attack, the weapon glowed and began to grow. The rangers watched as her sword doubled in size, and presumably weight as she began to use both hands to grip it's long handle.  
"Volclancer!" she shrieked, throwing the new weapon over her right shoulder. Instantly, she took off running towards the creature, which had no time to move before she swiped the large weapon at it, sending it flying off to the left towards the ocean.

It landed with a splash, and just as Red Ranger attempted running to it again, it raised its hand towards her and launched another series of electric bolts. Red Ranger stopped dead and shielded herself with her giant sword until the attack ended a few seconds later. When she lowered the weapon, her new enemy was nowhere in sight.

"Damn!" she cursed beneath her breath, as her sword returned to its previous form.

The other rangers quickly pulled themselves to their feet, and Blue Ranger wasted no time in heading over towards the new arrival.

"Hey!" he said.

Slowly, Red Ranger turned to him, but remained quiet.

"W-what's going on here?" he asked, slightly out of breath. "Who are you?"  
Red Ranger remained quiet for a few seconds as all eyes were focused on her. She never intended to reveal herself so quickly, but knew fine well if she didn't, each of them would have died when she could have prevented it. She glanced over to where the monster was seconds previously before turning back and walking away, each of the other rangers simply watching as she did.

"Nobody." she muttered. "I'm nobody." 

* * *

Laura's Bookshelf was quiet enough during the day normally, but to say it was dead at night would be an understatement.  
Inside, the sole occupant sat at one of her many books with a steaming cup of decaff coffee, spending Saturday night in her favourite way - alone. That is, until, they came bursting in.

Thundering their way through the door, a clearly upset Johnny with a confused Misha, Trevor and Olivia. Upon seeing this, Laura instantly jumped to her feet.

"You really should lock your door at night." Johnny growled, locking eyes with Laura. "You never know when strange people might show up."

"What do you mean?" Laura asked.

"Another ranger." Misha answered quickly, her tone far from as hostile as her older cousins. "A Red one saved us from one of those monsters."

"You didn't tell us anything about a fifth ranger." Olivia said sternly.

"I didn't tell you" Laura explained, retaining her cool yet her tone very stern.

"Because I didn't know. All references I have to The Circle keep the number of warriors vague."

"Right..." Johnny said sarcastically. "And we're expected to believe that?"

"Do you believe me when I tell you that thanks to a magic spell your friend cast, you're now a super-human fighting force destined to fight the evils of the underworld?"

Johnny sighed as he broke his stare with Laura, knowing fine well she was right.

"I promise you," the storekeeper continued. "I don't know this Ranger."

Misha shook her head. "So...what do we do?"

Laura glanced down at the girl and gave her a quick smile. "Go home." she replied calmly. "Get some rest. You'll need it after tonight."  
Johnny glared back up at her, but kept his mouth closed, as the team nodded and once again began filtering out of the door. Laura sighed as she watched them. She was confused, concerned, and not just concerned about the mystery ranger, but now she had a team of new rangers who needed her to guide and train them, but saw that the relationship was not going to be an easy one.

As they excited, moral seemed to change significantly as Misha squealed with joy.

"Still it was awwweesome!" she said, clinging on to Olivia's shoulder. "You should do magic more often!"

"Hey, I did kick ass, didn't I?" Trevor gloated, punching the air as if he was punching a monster.

All but Johnny giggled and laughed as they walked down the street, headed for their homes. Inside, Laura switched out the last of the store's lights and watched from the main window as the group made their way down the street into the darkness. When they were out of sight, she took a glance up at the rooftop of the medium-sized building directly opposite her store. Lit only by the moonlight, she made out the shape of a figure standing there staring back at her, and held her breath as she stared back.

Stared back into the visor of the Red Ranger.


	2. Keepers

The night over Angel City was as beautiful as ever. The dark sky resembled a black blanket sweeping high above the rooftops and skyscrapers, with bright, sparkling stars sprinkled along it for as far as the eye could possibly see. Many of these stars were, however, swallowed by the light of the full moon, looming above, yet despite its distance it appeared to take up quite a large portion of the Californian sky. Indeed, the night was peaceful. The beauty of the night attracted many eyes to gaze at it in awe. But on this night, one set of those eyes was not interested in the beauty, as while they gazed outward, they were seeing inward.

Inside their small hotel room, two figures found themselves at anything but peace. Stephanie McLauren stood tall, her blue zipper tied around her waist separating her grey tank top from black jeans, her arms crossed as she stared out of her window into the dark world beyond its glass in nothing but sheer silence, cluing her companion into recognizing that she was also deep in thought.

Drew, her younger brother, sat upon his bed, using the wall to keep himself up. His tired eyes would glance over at his sister every once in a while, hoping that she would eventually peel herself away from that window to remind him that she was actually there with him.

However, she continued to just stand there with her back to him, completely silent. He closed his eyes to enter into thought of his own - what was wrong with her, he wondered. She had barely said a word since returning from a fight three hours previously, only mentioning the new rangers she had saved before retreating into her own mind. This silence scared him. If only she would say something - anything. But instead, he decided to take the initiative.

"I wouldn't stare at that window as much." he called, hoping to gain her attention. "Knowing this place, it might break."

Finally, albeit slowly, she turned her head to him, her facial expression giving away much of what she was now thinking in that very moment, not that it had to.

"What the hell are you on about?" she asked coldly, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

Drew sighed as he hopped up to his feet and shuffled over to his sister. She watched as he stood next to her. Even when both were standing, she stood at least a quarter of a head taller than he did, forcing him to look up into her eyes as he tried to read what she was thinking.

"Is this such a bad thing?" he queried, referring to the other rangers. "I mean, they could hel-!"

"Drew."

He stopped mid-sentence as she stared a hole right through him. He knew simply from that look that finishing that sentence would be a waste of his breath.

"Look, I'm just saying tha-"

"I know what you're saying!" she snapped, causing Drew to back up slightly, before sighing as she closed her eyes. "They almost got themselves killed out there. If I didn't show up when I did-"

"But you did."

She turned her glance back to the outside, but she wasn't watching the world before her - her mind instead focused on the world behind her - recalling the events of the previous few hours as best she could. She remembered Blue Ranger being pinned down by the demon and the others being blasted to the ground by its power. And she recalled how easily she got her shot into it as well.

"They struggled out there." she muttered, her voice as distant as her mind could ever be. "They had no idea what they were in for."

"Neither did you at one point."

Her eyes returned to Drew's, but this time she was not staring through him, but staring into him, recalling the event which he was referring to. "That was different."

"How?" he asked, this time beginning to get slightly annoyed. "You had no idea what you were in for when you first started or how to fight a bloody demon!"

"I was alone!" she thundered back.

Drew narrowed his eyes as he glared back into hers.

"You were never alone!" he growled. "Not once have I ever left your side, and nor ever do I plan to."

"What would you have me do, Drew? Huh? Join them? Cut them some slack, maybe?" she responded rhetorically. "Oh, sorry you nearly died tonight. Better luck next time, eh?"

Stephanie's sarcasm was enough to tell Drew that this argument was not one that would be won upon trading oral blows at one another. It frustrated him to no end - SHE frustrated him to no end. Her attitude, her reluctance, he didn't quite get it. He just wanted her to listen to his point of view.

As she returned her gaze to the outside, he leaned in to her and rested his head against the side of hers, the right half of his face snuggled up with the left side of her own as each of them wrapped an arm around the other.

"Look." he spoke softly to her. "I'm just worried about you. We've lost too much; I don't want to lose you too."

She pulled her head away from him as he looked up into her eyes. Instead of the cold abruptness he noted earlier, they were now brighter and warmer. As a small smile appeared on her, she placed her free palm on the side of his face and smiled. "Baby," she said, just as softly. "I'm your big sister. You're never going to lose me."

He smiled at her, knowing how genuine her love for him was, and enjoying the fact that she was no longer locked in her silence. Now it was him that was locked – locked in her embrace, as he rested his head against her once more.

"Promise me that." He whispered to her.

* * *

Steph and Drew were not the only ones that found themselves wide awake in the dead of night. Across town, another young family sat in the darkness. Jonathan Tucker gripped his chest at the spot where the Vorkah demon when it pinned him down. Despite the new ranger armour, the pain was still needling at him.

Misha sat on the other end of the sofa. Her eyes were staring into the darkness as she found herself recalling the events of the last few hours in great detail. Health-wise, she was faring better than her cousin. The pain she felt when she and the others were zapped by the monster had long since worn off, no doubt in thanks to her ranger armour.

"You still sore?" she asked somberly, glancing over at him.

Johnny shook his head as he stretched, feeling the tiredness begin to seep in as he began to realize how long he had been awake. "Nah." he muttered back, attempting to cover his pain. "I'm alright."

Misha's eyes drifted away from him as she returned her gaze to the dark walls before them. "You don't need to put a brave face on, y'know." she said. "That thing was pretty damn strong."

Johnny's thoughts then turned back to the demon she was referring to. He remembered being pinned under its leg as his friends got zapped, and there was nothing he could have done to stop them. "Yeah..." he said with a sigh.

After a split-second, Misha's face began to brighten up as a large grin crossed her face. "But so were we."

As she returned her eyes to his, he nodded slightly. She was right, of course.

He remembered the pulsing power, and just how easily he overcame the Piranhi whereas before they had been at the receiving end of a beating from the demonic soldiers. The power was no doubt incredible, and yet, something wasn't quite right.

"What do you make of this Laura girl?" he queried.

Misha rocked her head from side to side slightly as she took a deep breath. "I don't know. I guess..." she trailed off as she lowered her head slightly. "I guess it's just a good thing that she was there...maybe."

"Good thing?" he responded, his tone low and giving away his suspicion. "I  
don't buy it."

"Don't buy what? The fact that we're now superheroes or something?"

"All of it!" he snapped back, jumping to his feet. Misha watched, slightly upset as she detected the frustration in him just as he began pacing back and forth.

"It's too co-incidental. First we get our asses kicked, then we're given powers by this strange girl to fight monsters, we still get our asses kicked, then this other ranger shows up to save us, but this Laura person claims to know nothing about her." Johnny sighed. "Yet she seems to know a hell of a lot about everything else!"

He turned back to Misha.

"Sorry, not buying this."

Misha shook her head. She knew that Johnny had a point, but that never meant that she enjoyed seeing him like this.

"Johnny..." she called softly, trying to calm him.

While it was a subtle attempt, it appeared to work as he slumped back down next to her, resting his head against the headrest of the sofa and staring up into the ceiling.

"I just don't trust her." he proclaimed.

Misha frowned - not at him, but at the entire situation. She understood exactly where he was coming from, but unlike Johnny, she saw the upside of it all.

"Look, I don't trust her either." she said as she rested her own head against his shoulder. "But you said it yourself - she knows a hell of a lot. If we're gonna do this, we're gonna need her."

Misha's warm words struck a chord in Johnny, as new thoughts began to spiral within his head. A chord, yes, but not one he would like to play to her that night, not after everything. As he glanced down at her, he noticed how her eyes were already closed and she was drifting off to sleep. He considered that perhaps she had the right idea - now was a time to sleep, not to fight.

Now was a time for rest.

* * *

Many hours later, the early morning sun was as bright and welcoming as ever. Its light began shining down upon Angel City as its residents began to stir and prepare for the day ahead of them. While many wished goodbye to their families to spend their Sunday at work, or sat around the breakfast table to begin their day together, one of those residents was already wide awake.  
Deep inside the bookstore she called home, Laura smiled to herself as the sweet aroma of fresh coffee floated past her nostrils. Her small kitchen was filled with the rich dawn light as she stirred the mug slowly, mixing in the milk with the black coffee to make the beverage a nice, welcoming golden brown.

As she descended the spiral staircase down into the lower level of her bookstore, she held the mug with both hands, raising it to her lips to sip the coffee slightly. Lowering the mug, she glanced up at the single frame door, through the window of which she saw something that she was not quite prepared for.

Through the pane of glass, she watched as Olivia Guyver and Trevor Logan both shot her a quick smile and motioned for her to unlock the door. Laura slowly nodded and proceeded to do just that.

"Well," she began, opening the door to allow the other woman entry. "I didn't expect you back so soon."

Olivia shot her another smile as she stepped in. "Oh, I know it's a bit early and all."

Laura glanced down at her watch as it read 08:05 back to her.

"Not early at all." she responded with a smile of her own. "So, what can I do for you?"

Olivia lowered her head as she came to a stop in the center of the shop.

Trevor just glanced around the shop, taking in the surroundings all over again.

Laura meanwhile headed over to her counter and placed her steaming mug down.

"Well..." Olivia began. "We've been talking, like, all night and all, and there's something we want to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Laura queried, turning to face the duo. "About last night, I presume?"

"Yeah." confirmed a rather tired looking Trevor. If Olivia hadn't told Laura that they had been up all night, she would've been able to guess it thanks to the bags under his eyes.

Olivia, meanwhile, retained some of her energy – quite a bit of it, actually.

"We were talking, and then we started talking about what we should be talking to you about. But we were talking so much last night about that other ranger that we forgot to talk to you about what we should've talked to you about."

Laura stared back at her, completely confused. "Talk to me about...?"

"About one of those demons." elaborated Trevor as he scratched the back of his head. He actually felt a bit embarrassed. "One of them, well, kinda, a little bit... got away."

Laura sighed as she turned her back on the duo, reaching for her mug. "Oh...a demon escaped...?"

"Kinda..." confirmed a rather nervous Olivia. "Red Ranger showed up and it took off. We never even saw it run or anything."

Laura slowly turned back to them, looking into their somewhat concerned eyes. "Did it see you morph?"

Olivia just lowered her eyes to the floor while Trevor nodded.

"Ah. Well..." muttered Laura. "This is rather inconvenient."

"Can't you find it?" Trevor piped up, sounding quite hopeful. "I mean, you gotta have a way to track it, right?"

Laura headed back behind the counter and opened the book that had been lying there – Olivia and Trevor noted that it was a different one than Olivia had read from the day before. Laura began shuffling through the pages.

"It's probable that it went back to the Emptháa demon that summoned it."  
She said, thundering through the pages.

Trevor piped up again. "Hold on, you mentioned that before..." he said, recalling the previous conversation they had before they became rangers.  
"What exactly is an Emptar demon?"

"Emptháa." corrected Laura, sternly.

"An Emptháa demon," she continued as she stopped flipping through the pages, turning the book so that the other two could see. As they each looked down at the text, Trevor couldn't make sense of the writings, but Olivia found herself understanding each and every word, alongside a picture of what was clearly a female demon, with a large crown covering the upper part of her face, with two large gems on either side and one thinner gem in the center.

"Emptháa demon Dalas..." muttered Olivia, catching both the attention and astonishment of Laura and Trevor. ""Says that she has the power to summon demons from the depths...and can form psychic links with other demonic and magical beings."

Trevor was still somewhat confused. "Meaning...?"

"Meaning..." began Laura, glaring up at him. "If she links with that demon – and she most likely has – she knows what it knows. It saw you morph, therefore now she likely knows your faces and will likely send that demon back here to come after you."

Trevor and Olivia shared a concerned look with one another, before both of them looked back to Laura.

"We didn't stand a chance last time." muttered Olivia. "If Red Ranger didn't show up..."

"Then we should start looking for a weakness." Laura said, pointing to the landing above them. "All the other books on demons are up there. Call your friends. We've got some research to do."

* * *

Stephanie McLauren wasn't one for peace and quiet.

Instead, she preferred the quick pace, sense of danger and fighting for her very existence each and every day. She loved the energy brought on by swinging her sword at monsters from hell, saving the lives of others and generally kicking the heads in of anything dangerous that came her way.

That's why she hated the day time.

Rather than being out on the rooftops overlooking the city or hunting down demonic villains, she instead found herself cooped up in her tiny hotel room on her own. Drew had left a few hours previously, telling her something about needing a few supplies for some computer program he was working on, leaving her alone with her thoughts – and alone with her favourite punch bag.

As she hammered the large red punch bag with her thunderous fists, her mind remained focused on the night before- although this time not on the new rangers, but upon the new demon she had failed to defeat in her usual manner. It wasn't like her to let a demon escape, and it somewhat disappointed her for not getting the pleasure of watching it explode.

Her thunderous punches were so loud that she never heard the door to room 21B click and creak open.

"You still at that?" Drew asked as he crept in, holding a large bag, presumably of computer supplies.

Steph stopped, somewhat out of breath, turning to him. "Yeah." She hammed the bag one more time. "Gives me something to do."

"You need to get out more." He noted, placing the bag. "By the way, on the way back I saw this book shop. Might be worth taking a wee look for, well, books and that."

The mention of the bookstore returned Steph's mind to the previous night once more, looking down upon the store the other rangers went to after their encounter with the demons. "Yeah, I know it." She said as she reached for a bottle of water she had placed on her bed. "Might check it out later."

He nodded to her as he sat down on his own bed and began rummaging through the bag.

"What you got?" she asked.

He never lifted his head, continuing to search through the bag. "Nothing much. A few USBs, some cables and a new external hard drive." He said.  
"Gonna need all this for my umm...little project."

Steph only shook her head as she drank from the bottle once more.

"Aye that book store..." Drew continued as he began pulling things out the bag. "Should look at things for local knowledge. See what we can find out about this place being the source of the evil and all. God knows I've had no luck online."

Steph stopped drinking as her eyes widened. "The source?" she asked.

Drew glanced up at her. "Aye. You mentioned that once or twice. Angel City is the source."

"Drew..." she said, clenching her teeth together. "I... didn't mean 'the source' as in 'the source of the evil'."

Drew stopped, almost frozen before glancing up at his sister, who had a rather nervous look on her face. "You what?"

She slowly sat down on the edge of her bed. "I meant 'the source' as in...you know, the source of the letter."

"The letter?"

"Aye." She nodded. "Thought you knew that..."

"And the package as well, I suppose?"

She nodded again as he lowered his head.

"Alright." He said, obviously a tad down. "So you've got the address where they sent from? So let's go an-"

"It was a P.O box, Drew." She replied, as he closed his eyes and sighed in response. "Sorry honey."

"Brilliant." He muttered, slumping back down onto his bed. "So this mystical source which I thought was the source of this great evil demonic power that I've been researching turns out to be a bloody P.O box..." he glanced up to her once more. "That has to be a new one."

She pouted.

"So...you couldn't have used another term like, oh I don't know, maybe 'This is where the letter was sent from'..." Drew said with a sigh.

"Sorry..."

"Steph," he said. "If you're holding out hope tha-"

"It was her handwriting." Steph sharply cut in, before taking a deep breath to keep herself calm. "And it was sent from somewhere in this city."  
Drew nodded slightly to her, but he didn't quite agree entirely with her. "Well, maybe if you were to talk to-"

"No."

Drew glared up at her, deep into her cold, unforgiving eyes. He knew that she was aware of what he was about to say, judging from her glaring right back at him. He pulled himself to his feet, but still had to look up into her eyes.

"What is this?" he asked, his tone just as cold and unforgiving as hers could ever be. "You've been wanting to find out where that letter came from ever since you got the bloody thing."

"Since WE got this 'bloody thing'!" she corrected, raising her voice to him.

"What happened to me not being alone, Drew? "

Drew almost laughed. If it weren't for the fire in her eyes and the growl in her voice, he could almost have sworn that she was joking. "Oh that's priceless that is." He smeared. "Think about this then – Mum disappears, that letter shows up, then demons attack, then new rangers turn up. A wee bit co-incidental, don't you think? And then there's you having your head so far up your own arse to see that sometimes, just sometimes, you might need other people's help."

He shook his head as she stepped further towards him, putting her face in his as both sets of eyes growled at one another, before she stepped away, headed for the door. Drew, however, was not about to let her go so easily.

"You know, I think I've finally figured you out." He said, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. "You're afraid. You're afraid that somehow you're to blame for what happened to mam; that maybe there was something you could've done to stop it. You're afraid not because you weren't there to stop mam leaving, but maybe somehow you drove her off. Maybe if you backed away, she'd still be here – that's what you're thinking, right? That's why you're keeping your distance from these other rangers. You're afraid that you being there for them will only result in one of them getting hurt and you having to go through that pain and that guilt all over again – that's what your bloody problem is!"

He shook his head again as she remained still with her back to him.

"You're afraid that everyone you love will get hurt. So…what happens to me?" He asked rhetorically. "Is this how I get hurt? Watching my sister retreat deep into her own shell of shame and guilt? Because that hurts, Stephanie. That hurts a hell of a lot more than anything else in the world."

Steph's only response was a deep breath, before opening the door and slamming it shut behind her as she left.

* * *

The rough waves crashed against the rocky landscape poking up from beneath waterline of the Blood Ocean. The sound was just as horrific as the groaning souls screamed with all their might. They appeared angry, as if they were detecting the very existence of something which they detested.

It wasn't just the landscape the waves thundered up against, but also along the lone vessel to sail these waters - the very same that had been doing so for many centuries - The Barge of the Undead.

On board the ancient vessel, its occupants were not in disarray or upset at the rather unpleasant ride they were receiving. Instead, curiosity had taken them under its cloak. Perak - the small, humanoid octopus creature - stood with one of his many books in his left hand as he normally did. However, instead of reading the ancient text, his eyes were focused ahead of him, at the ancient Emptháa demon called Dalas, and the warrior Vorkah demon she had sent out hours earlier to Earth.

From Perak's perspective, the two were simply standing staring at one another. They had been this way since the Vorkah had returned merely hours previously - the first ever demon to return to Perak's knowledge. Apart from the odd creaking of the wooden ship, all was silent on board with the exception of the odd "Hmm" from Dalas. Perak watched them with excitement, eager to gain the information which Dalas had promised him upon sending the demon out.

Where Perak was only seeing what appeared to be a demonic staring contest,  
Dalas was actually looking deep into the mind of the Vorkah demon, in effort to gain access to its memories and to the information which she seeks.

Finally, Dalas broke her stare with the monster before her and made another of her common "Hmm." noises as she glanced down at the floor.

Perak could hardly contain his excitement. "Well?" he asked with his voice as wheezy and raspy as ever.

She looked over to him. "Seems we were right, Perak." she said steadily. "The Circle are back..."

Both Perak and he Vorkah continued looking at her as she scrambled back atop her favourite set of crates, picking up her harmonium in the process.

"Four of them at first." she continued, as she brought the instrument into a position where she could begin to play it. "Relatively weak and of little concern."

Perak looked into her eyes. "At first?" he asked curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

Dalas glared back up at him. She often found herself frustrated by Perak and his constant desire for knowledge, but in this case, she considered it justified, especially since she was the one that promised it to him.

"I mean," she continued, glaring at him. "Another one arrived much later than the rest. This one was stronger and seemed much more dangerous."

The Vorkah demon remained still and silent, like a robot awaiting orders from its commander. Perak, however, turned his back on both it and Dalas and placed his book down upon his own crate as his mind began working.

Dalas simply watched him, trying to figure out what he was thinking. She had known him for many centuries, and had come to learn that whenever Perak placed one of his books down on his crate, his mind was doing what it did best - scheming.

"You know what this means," he asked slowly, turning his head around to speak to her. "Don't know?"

Dalas looked away from him as she attempted to uncover the answer.

"The Circle is not united." proclaimed Perak, catching Dalas' full attention once more. As she glanced back up to him, he turned around to return that glance. His tone of voice gave away the fact that whatever he had come up with, he was proud of it. She had come to trust that over the years.

"You seem certain of that." she said, keeping her eye on him. "Perhaps, we should see just how right you are."

She and Perak then turned their eyes back to the Vorkah demon, who remained silent and still, awaiting its orders.

It was rapidly approaching lunch-time before Johnny and Misha found themselves out and about. The sun was blazing warm and the streets of Angel City bustling with life as the duo walked through the crowds of people enjoying their warm Sunday.

Misha was a few steps ahead of Johnny, feeling more eager to reach their destination than Johnny. Upon approach, Misha pushed open the door to Laura's Bookshelf and hurried inside, leaving Johnny outside for merely a second as he glanced up at the name of the store, before following in his cousin's footsteps.

Inside, he found Misha standing in the middle of the floor looking around. Above them, Olivia could be seen taking various books off the shelves of the upper landing, while Laura was scrambling down the steps with more books in her arms.

"Umm," began Misha, feeling a bit confused. "What's going on?"

What neither of them saw was Trevor off to their left until he scrambled by in front of them, with even more books. "Research party." He muttered, obviously far from enjoying himself.

"Research?" asked Johnny, echoing his cousin's confusion. "And what are we researching, exactly?"

"That big demon thing." Called Olivia, as she glanced over the banister at the edge of the landing, catching the cousins' attention. "You know, the big ugly one."

"You mean the one that almost blew us sky-high?" Misha queried, with a look of concern quite obvious on her face. "That one?"

In contrast to Misha's concern, Olivia seemed quite perky. "That's the one!" she said with a smile, much to Misha's dismay. She huffed heavily – the last thing she wanted was to see that creature again. The pain it caused was too fresh in her mind, but she had a feeling that seeing it would be the least of her worries in the very near future.

In fact, there was one worry she had at that very moment – and he was standing right next o her.

"The one that we had to be rescued from?" Johnny remarked, his attention focused on Laura.

Misha glared up at him, as Olivia and Trevor only glanced over for a second before returning to work – they each had an idea what was coming next.

"By that 'mysterious' Red Ranger?"

Johnny's eyes remained on Laura, who only looked up for a slit second before returning to one of her books. "I told you," she began, keeping what was becoming her trademark cool tone, before gazing back at Johnny. "I don't know this red ranger. I don't know when she arrived, I don't know how she got here, I don't know how she knew about that demon and I certainly don't know why you're not believing what I'm saying – or was I lying when I said that you were now superheroes fighting to save the world from vicious hell demons?"

Johnny shot her a dirty look, as Misha placed her head in her hands in shame as Laura and Johnny shared a firey stare.

"I don't know Red Ranger." Laura repeated, returning her eyes down at her book. "I know demons. I know that we should be researching this demon to find a weakness instead of arguing about this other ranger."

Olivia and Trevor watched on as Misha turned to Johnny. He could see in her eyes that she was clearly angry at him for causing a scene. He slowly nodded to her in apology.

"She's right." Misha said to him, her voice as commanding as Laura's was cool.  
"This thing might come back-"

"It will come back." interrupted Laura as she continued reading.

Misha sighed before continuing. "Will come back, and when it does we have to be ready."

Slowly, he nodded again.

"So shut up and start reading." Misha ordered, causing Johnny's jaw to drop almost to the floor as she guided him towards the stairs. Trevor and Olivia simply giggled slightly before they continued reading.

* * *

Mid-afternoon in Angel City was quite a busy time during the weekdays – the schools were closing for the day, people were preparing to leave work and head home, and others leave home and head for work. Sundays, however, were quite different. Thanks to the relaxing nature of the day, and the warm sun hanging high, many of the city's people preferred to walk or use their own transportation, leaving Angel City's light rail tram system almost obsolete on that day as the trams would cart around mostly fresh air.

One such person not aboard one of the trams was Stephanie McLauren. She had always loved railways to some degree – it was one of the things she and

Drew could easily bond over. She sighed to herself as she watched one of the silver and black tram-trains rumbled past without a care in the world – much unlike her.

Steph recalled Drew's words with much ease. Indeed, they had been echoing in her mind ever since they left his mouth. Strangely, though, she was unsure of how to feel.

Drew, however, knew exactly how to feel.

Back in their hotel room, he was to be found slumping on his head, holding his head in his hands as he leaned back against the wall. He felt guilty, shameful and disgusted – he regretted each and every word he said.

Despite being in completely different locations, both of them mimicked each other to near perfection on their mental actions – both of them thinking about not only what was said, but what was meant. Was he right in what he said? Did he mean it deep down?

Drew knew he did, but that never stopped his guilt.

Suddenly, Drew was jolted from his thoughts as the computer he had set up between his bed and the door began to beep, almost like an alarm. In fact, it was an alarm.

He scrambled to his feet and hurried over to it, staring down at the sleek black monitor, showing a map image of Google Maps with a group of pulsing red dotted lights to the upper right of the screen. He reached into his right pocket and pulled out his black smartphone, and hut his sister's name on speed dial. He only hoped that she would actually answer.

As Steph was about to cross the street following the passing of another tram, she suddenly felt a vibration emanating from her jacket's inside pocket. She didn't even need to guess what was going on, as she answered her phone.

"Where?" she asked coldly.

"City beach." Drew responded. "Looks like Piranhi."

Steph turned away as another tram rumbled by so that she could hear her brother. "I' on main street." She yelled over the tram. "How far is the plaza from here?"

Drew skimmed his fingers across the keyboard as he tried to find main street on the map. "I'd say…" he murmured, until he found it. "About a mile eastward."

She nodded. " I'll be there."

She hung up the phone and instantly began looking all around her. The city was busy, no doubt, but even in the crowds there would be a safe haven – somewhere she could escape to. Nothing across the street that she could see, not that she could see much beyond the people, but that was no concern, as she spotted a long, narrow ally way behind her.

She jogged into it, keeping her pace until she was approximately halfway up its long, littered pathway. As she stopped, she took one last look around, finding that no-one was watching her, and removed her morpher from her jeans pocket. She flipped the device out so it resembled a phone and brought her arms across her chest in a cross.

"Summon The Circle!"

She pulled her arms back out to her sides as – in a flash – her red ranger suit enveloped her body, and the energy and power radiated right through her.  
Red Ranger closed her fists as the power raged into them, and her mind set itself on the task at hand. She was ready.

Minutes later, she found herself viewing Angel City and its trams from a different perspective. As she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, Stephanie kept on eye on the streets below in case the Piranhi decided to come inland. Looking up, she could see the ocean seep into view, signalling to her that she was closing in.

"You're almost there." spoke Drew over the communication system. In her ear, she detected the commitment and heart in his tone. She knew that despite her being the only one out there to o the actual fighting, he was standing-by ready to help in any way he could.

Coming to the edge of the last rooftop, she saw them. The Piranhi were clearly enjoying themselves, terrorizing the city's beach-goers and wreaking havoc on any set up beach furniture they could find.

All that was about to come to an end.

Red Ranger leaped off the final building into a somersault, rolling through the air with grace and ease, and rolling further as she landed over her shoulders instantly into action. She swiped one incoming beast off its feet, before jumping up to her own and striking another in the head with the very same leg. As another tried swiping it's sword from behind her, she rolled clear and removed her own sword from its sheath. She swiped it at the Piranhi which had tried to strike her with its sword, causing its chest to spark with damage in the process. She twirled around, slicing another at the waist with her blade as she did, causing it to tumble to the ground. As she stopped twirling, she opened her belt buckle and removed the black disk sitting there awaiting her.  
She attached it to the hilt of the blade just as the remaining Piranhi regrouped.

"Power Blade!" she yelled, spinning the disk. "Burning Tornado!"

As the flames began swirling around the blade of the weapon, she twirled it before swiping it through the air, sending a energy wave of fire right at the surviving beasts. As the energy fire made contact, the Piranhi erupted into a series of small explosions, as Red Ranger re-sheathed her weapon.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Steph raised her right hand up to the side of her helmet. "They're down." She muttered coldly.

The response she got wasn't exactly what she had been looking for.

"Hang on…" Drew muttered, the concern rather obvious in his voice.

Beneath her helmet, Steph raised her eyebrows in curiosity. She could tell from the tone of his voice that something was amiss, but she couldn't be sure what. Before she got the chance to find out what, she could hear Drew's fingers at work as they skimmed over his computer keyboard once more.

"What is it?" she asked.

She heard him sigh slightly before he responded. "I don't know. I thought I picked up something else there for a minute, but not anymore."  
Red Ranger stole a glance around, confirming that she was completely alone.  
"Something else?" she asked.

"Aye."

Stephanie shook her head. She could still hear the concern in her younger brother's voice, and she had come to trust that if Drew thought something wasn't quite right, that meant that something wasn't quite right. Still, she did see nothing else.

"Maybe it was a glitch." She stated, her voice as cold as artic stone.

The other end of the conn remained silent for a second. She assumed that  
Drew had heard her, but was likely staring at the screen as if he could will the problem to reveal itself. "Aye maybe." He finally responded, the concern still rather obvious. "You alright? You're not hurt are you?"

At any other time, she would have no problem answering that very question. Sure, the Piranhi never hurt her, but the events of today made the answer somewhat unclear. "I dunno." She muttered. "Maybe."

Drew didn't need her to elaborate.

"Look, Steph…I didn't-"

"Not now." She said, quite abruptly, stopping Drew dead before he could finish. As she closed the conn, she closed her eyes as the contemplated the last few seconds. Her mind switched between this and the conversation she shared with her brother earlier, and then suddenly she realized something.

Where were the other rangers?

* * *

For once, it was quiet.

The moaning and groaning of those damned souls below almost seemed like it had come to an end – almost. The waves lapped calmly against the passing barge as it creaked and groaned itself, almost as if it too was one of the damned.

It was silent on board as well. Dalas sat atop her crates, strumming her harmonium as she stared out into the hellish abyss beyond the horizon. Her music was as slow and demonic as her very own existence had been. That was enough to send chills down even the most evil of spines.

Across from her, over on the side of the vessel usually occupied by Perak stood the Vorkah demon. The creature remained tall, still and silent, standing in one of the corners looking out into nothing.

Perak had vanished into the room where their other companion slumbered. The tall creature rested atop its makeshift bed while Perak lapped it's forehead with a damp rag which he dipped every so often into a plateful of the blood snatched up from the ocean. He knew that this wouldn't awaken the creature, but at least it gave him something to do while Dalas plotted their next move.

He didn't know that that move had already been made.

It was only with the sound of Dalas' voice coming from the other room did he decide to go in and see what she was up to.

"Ah…you're back." He heard her say, accompanied by a thump, which he presumed was her hopping off her crates.

As he crossed into the main room of the vessel, he saw that his female companion was w joined by another arrival - before her, silent and unmoving, stood one of the Piranhi. Perak watched as the Piranhi creature and Dalas shared a stare as she dwelled into the creature's memory, but unlike her contact with the Vorkah, this one only lasted a few seconds.

"Hmm." Dalas murmured as she broke the stare.

Perak's curiosity was peaked. "What is this? What are you up to?"

Dalas began pacing as she tapped one of her fingers off her chin. It appeared as if she was ignoring Perak, who simply watched on with interest.

"It's interesting...isn't it?" asked Dalas as she continued pacing.  
Perak was beginning to get confused. "What is?"

Dalas looked up at him and giggled. "The Piranhi are born from the Ocean of Blood." She said as she walked over in front of the unmoving foot soldier, but keeping her entire body facing Perak. She then placed one hand on the Piranhi's head. "Yet one touch of it after their birth and they are completely incinerated."

With that, Perak watched as Dalas pushed the Piranhi through the gap in the wall of the ship, sending it crashing to the ocean of blood – and to its very death – below.

Dalas kept her eyes squarely on Perak. "I sent a group of them to Earth to see if The Circle really are not united, It appears the Red one fought them alone." She then turned to look out the window before her. "That one was to stay out of view and watch."

"Interesting." wheezed the elderly octopus creature as he began to waddle over to her side. "But we already knew that The Circle weren't united. The Vorkah demon told you that." He pointed towards the silent Vorkah demon in  
the corner.

"The Vorkah demon," yelled Dalas as she angry turned to Perak. "The Vorkah demon only clued us into it, the Piranhi confirmed it!"

Perak humphed and began to waddle over to the Vorkah demon on the other side of the room. Dalas watched with interest as he came to a stop before turning his head back to her.

"I know what you're thinking." He wheezed, returning his gaze to the tall and silent Vorkah. "I hope that it works, Dalas; for all our sakes."

Dalas giggled to herself as she and the Vorkah locked their gazes upon each other once more.

Drew rubbed his forehead as he closed his eyes, shielding his vision from the computer that he had been staring at for what felt like an entire age. Here was a young man who should be out enjoying his Sunday afternoon, but instead was inside spending it by being stressed over a rouge demon signature.

His eyes snapped open once again when he heard the thunderous sound of the door to his hotel room slam shut. Turning his attention to the source of the noise, he witnessed his sister striding over towards him with purpose.

Desperately, he wished to apologise to her regarding their recent conflict, but she had other plans.

"Anything else?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder as she gazed into the computer screen.

Drew shook his head in response as his eyes returned to that very same computer screen, which was displaying to both persons the same road map view of Google maps that formed part of his demon tracking program.

"Not a bloody thing." he muttered. "I dinnae get it though. It _was_ there!"

"I didn't see anything." Steph noted, her voice as low and serious enough to let Drew know that challenging her on the issue would not be his best course of action. "I still say glitch."  
Drew opted not to challenge her, instead keeping his tactics solely on the program itself. "I just wished I knew for definite. Otherwise, I know I'm gonna be at this all night."

* * *

"We're gonna be at this all night!"

Misha groaned as she dropped her head onto a pile of open books scattered around the round table the group had set up to help them research. Indeed, many hours had already passed since the research itself began, and she, along with the others, felt that they were no closer now to finding their demon than they were before, perhaps due to the fact that most of them could only go by the portraits of the demons in the books rather than the mystifying text itself.

"Found it!"

All eyes darted up towards Trevor as he jogged down the spiral staircase with an open book in his hands. To herself, Misha noted the impeccable timing, given her earlier groan.

As Trevor reached the last step, Misha and Johnny got up from the round table, while Olivia and Laura joined them at the foot of the stairs from their positions at the counter.

"Liv." Trevor muttered as he handed the open book to his long-time friend  
Olivia, who was also the only one other than Laura who could begin to understand the ancient writings within the books pages. Upon taking the book into her own arms, Olivia instantly recognized the demon pictured as the very one that they had encountered the previous evening.

"It's a Vorkah demon." she said, scanning the book with her eyes. "Says it has incredible strength and…oh…"

If Olivia didn't have the others' full attention before, she certainly did now.

"What?" Misha asked, the look on her face teamed with her quivering voice signaled to Olivia that her friend wasn't sure if she wanted that question to be answered.

"And is practically…indestructible." Olivia muttered slowly as she closed the book over, keeping her finger in place as a sort of bookmark. "Great…"

The others remained silent as they attempted to soak up Olivia's words just as she did herself. Only Johnny was not content with remaining quiet with such information.

"Hold on…" he began, attracting the attention of everyone else in the room.  
"'Practically' indestructible?"

Olivia skewed up her face "Well, that's what it says…" she flipped the book back open and pointed to a section of text beneath the picture, showing it to Johnny in the process. "See?"

Johnny narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer "No Livvy." He said as he ran his eyes over the passage. "I don't see. I can't understand any of that."

Olivia pouted. "Well if you could, you would."

In that instant, Laura – being the only other one present who could understand the ancient writings – leaned past Johnny and Olivia handed her the book. Reading the text Olivia had pointed to, she nodded.

"That it what is says." She said with confidence, keeping her eyes on the page. "It also says that the Vorkah demon is a seeker of silence."

"Wait, what does that mean?" asked Trevor as he crossed his arms.

"It seeks silence…" Johnny began, once more attracting the eyes of the others as his mind began to work. "Livvy, you found something earlier that said that these things arrive through the water, right?"

Curiously, his friend nodded.

"It seeks silence…" he repeated. "And it'll seek it near the water."

As everyone else continued staring at him in wonder of where he was going, it hut him.

"The beach!" he yelled. "That's where it'll turn up. It's quietest part of town and it's near the water!"

"A sound theory." Noted a somewhat couscous Laura, whom Johnny simply glared back at. "However, it being a seeker of silence doesn't necessarily mean it'll automatically go to where silence already is – being a demonic killer sent here to help destroy the world, I'd bet that it'll go for the loudest and busiest part of town to create the silence it seeks."

Johnny only shook his head.

"Oh?" began Laura, crossing her arms as she was beginning to get annoyed by  
Johnny's attitude. "And how long have you been demon hunting?"

"Long enough to know that that doesn't make sense." He snorted, as the others shared concerned glances with one another. Johnny began heading for the door "The beach." He repeated. "That's where it'll be, we should wait it out there!"

Reaching the door, he stopped to see that the others has not followed him.

"Maybe we should split up." Misha said, as she glanced between Olivia and Trevor. "You guys head fo-"

"We split up…" Johnny interrupted, cutting her dead. "and that thing's gonna have a better chance of putting us in the ground."

Misha didn't like his attitude, but she had to admit, he had a point there.

"The beach." he repeated once more, opening the door before taking off down the street.

The others looked to Laura, who signalled them clear to follow him. As they did, she crossed her arms and shook her head in silence.

* * *

Back in room 21B of the Ruttingdam Hotel, Stephanie and Drew McLauren were in complete silence. She was exciting the bathroom, gliding a comb through her freshly washed, golden blonde hair while he ran his fingers across the keyboard of the computer he sat before.

Their silence, however, was short-lived.

The alarm kicked in to life and instantly, Steph joined Drew at his side, looking straight at the map on the screen.

"Where?" she barked.

"Beach again." He responded, just as sharply, although that was not intended on his part. "More Piranhi it looks like."

Steph nodded and turned to leave, but before she could get even as far as the door, Drew stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait a minute…" he muttered, just loud enough for her to hear him. With her hand on the handle of the door, she turned back to him.

"Another one." He began, turning his head to her. "Central Street, near the plaza."

"Central Street?" she echoed in confusion.

He nodded as he turned back to the computer. "Aye. That'd be pretty busy this time of day."

Steph turned her head back towards the door as her mind kicked into action – she had a choice to make. Either she was going to the beach to take on the Piranhi, who could easily cause a lot of harm to anyone nearby, or she was going after this ghost signature on the Plaza, which she couldn't even be 100% sure was real – even the Piranhi one could be another glitch, she thought. But nonetheless, her mind was made up. She yanked the door open and bolted out as fast as her legs would carry her, leaving Drew alone as he stared deep into the computer.

As the sun began to disappear over the horizon, the blood-red sky loomed high above the beach of Angel City. The sunset seemed to be quicker than usual – almost as if the sun was running way from something.

In fact, it may as well have been.

A small group of Piranhi swarmed around the lush, golden sands of the beach where only twenty-four hours previously, brothers and sisters of their kind met their fate at the hands of The Circle. Each of this new swarm was mumbling to its comrades, all together at the same time, and yet, they seemed to understand each other perfectly. They certainly understood when one of them pointed towards the incoming rangers.

"I knew it!" Blue Ranger screamed as he and his team ran towards the monsters at breakneck speed. "I knew they'd be here!"  
The monsters decided not to wait for the rangers and took off towards them, waving their swords in the air as they did so. Blue Ranger caught one incoming with his left hand and flipped himself over it, landing on his feet heavily, before blocking an incoming sword strike with his wrist and elbowing another Piranhi behind him in the face with his free arm. He kicked the monster he had blocked in the knee before punching it square in the face.

Yellow Ranger also blocked a sword attack by one of the beats, this time with her left shin. She then used her right leg to launch herself into the air, striking the monster in the chin with it as she did so. She then scored a roundhouse on another before instantly diving to the ground and swiping four more off their feet.

Green Ranger caught an incoming fist in his left hand and punched back with his right, striking the Piranhi in the jaw before rolling clear of a sword swing. He kicked one beast in the gut, rolled over its back before dropkicking it, sending it hurdling into three more standing before them. He then grabbed another by the arm and started swinging it, striking various other beasts with it in the process before sending it crashing to the ground.

Pink Ranger struck one of the beasts across the chest with her Power Blade, causing it to spark as it fell to the sands below. She then twirled the weapon around, stabbing one behind her in the chest, took a few steps backwards and removed the weapon sharply, striking the beast twice more before allowing it to fall. As various more began to surround her, she twirled into the air, striking each of them with the weapon as she did, bringing them all down.

Then, she looked up.

"Where's the Vorkah?!" she called to the others as she struck another incoming beast with her sword.

Yellow Ranger held four more Piranhi at bay with her own weapon. "I don't see it!" she coughed, struggling with the beasts as she did.

* * *

The Vorkah demon was not at the beach.

Instead, the creature found itself terrorizing residents in Angel City's Central Street, one of the busiest locations in Angel City, even on a Sunday. Men, women, young and old all screamed and fled the monster as it trashed everything it could find – cars, lampposts, even knowing down a few attempted runaways. The creature caught a young man by the shoulder and began laying into him, punching him in the gut several times, causing him to squeal in agony with each thunderous blow. This monster was merciless.

And so was its opponent.

Red Ranger leaped from one of the rooftops and caught the monster, the force of her drive causing them both to roll down the street, freeing the young man, not that he could run now that his gut had been battered to hell by the monster.

Both it and the ranger were back to their feet in no time, swinging attacks and taking blows at one another. Red Ranger tried swinging her fists at the creature, which dodged each and swatted its own at her. She managed to duck and dodge most, but some unfortunately made contact, causing her suit to spark with damage and send her down to one knee.

The Vorkah then swatted her with one hand across the side of her head, sending her down to the ground. She had no time to recover, however, as it undid it's work by picking her back up and giving her the same treatment it gave the young man moments previously – repeatedly punching her in the gut, causing her to wince and scream in agony with each and every blow.

The monster then swung its leg at her, sending her flying backwards with such force that she was sent crashing through one of the red sandstone buildings that lined the streets.

Inside, the residents of the apartment that this red stranger had been sent crashing into screamed with horror at the very sight of it. The young woman inside grabbed her young baby and made her way towards the main door, screaming so loud that it made even Steph's bruised ears hurt beneath her helmet. Still, she didn't care – she had to get up. Battered, bruised, hammered, but not defeated, Red Ranger pulled herself out of the rubble and staggered back to her feet. This fight was far from over.

* * *

Back at the hotel, Drew was still seated at his computer, staring at the screen as it now showed various signatures to him, which he easily identified as two demonic and five ranger. He had been watching the signatures of the other rangers since they appeared, and noticed that after they did, the number of Piranhi signatures seemed to drop by the second. In fact, he had been so wrapped up in watching these new rangers, he had forgotten to check the status of the one he already knew.

Realizing this, he glanced towards Stephanie's signature. He couldn't tell her status from what his screen was showing him, but he felt a terrifying sickly feeling deep in his gut – something which he had not ever felt for his sister before. What could he do? Here was a man who could build computer programs to track demonic beings from hell, who could tap into mystical technology to communicate with the user, who…

That's it.

Drew's eyes lit up as he instantly began typing faster than he had ever typed before – so fast that even the starship Enterprise would have trouble keeping up with him. Across his face stretched a smile as his mind settled in and got to work.

* * *

The Piranhi once again proved themselves little match for the new team of rangers , as each of them quickly finished them off, sending each of the beasts tumbling to the ground amidst sparks and explosions. Seconds later, the new rangers regrouped to discuss their situation.  
"Well genius," remarked Green Ranger, slapping his blue counterpart on the arm. Johnny needed no clues as to what was coming next.

"Where's the demon you were so sure we'd find here?" remarked an annoyed Trevor.

Blue Ranger remained silent, giving no words away to Trevor, which in turn was all the answer that Trevor would ever need

Yellow Ranger decided it was best to keep focused, rather than pinning blame. "Look, I think we need to-"

It was in that moment when something else caught her attention. In fact, it caught all their attention. Raising the right arms to their corresponding ear, each ranger found themselves taken aback by this new development.

"Rangers." called the new voice through their ears. "Rangers, can you hear me?"

Each of the rangers, although each wearing helmets, shared a confused look with one another as they tried to identify the source of this voice.

"W…what's this?" Pink Ranger stammered as she glanced around at her comrades. "More to the point, _who's_ this?"

"Look, there's not a lot of time to explain." The new voice responded quickly, with hints of worry and fear easily detectable within it to each ranger. "Look, you're falling for a trap!"

Blue Ranger shook his head. "What?!"

He heard a sigh on the other end of the con. "Bloody hell." Muttered the new voice. "Look, there was a Piranhi attack earlier today right where you're at now. Red Ranger took care of it, but there was something else there that she never saw."

The rangers continued listening.

"Now here's another demon attack near the city plaza – Central Street. Red's there now, but she might nee-"

"Hold on a second." Interrupted Pink Ranger, catching the attention of her fellow rangers and the source of the new voice in the process. "This other creature Red never saw, what happened to it?"

The owner of the voice sighed again. "I dunno. Vanished off my tracker."

"It went home…" Pink Ranger muttered as she entered deep thought. "Piranhi shows up, Red Ranger fights them alone…then two demon attacks at the same time on different ends of the city…"

"And they're at two different ends of the city because…" the new voice continued as its owner began to realize the plan that was in action here. "…  
Because they're trying to lure you to two different ends of the city – they're trying to split you up!"

Johnny nodded. "See? Told you."

"Dalas!" Pink Ranger yelled, turning her head to her Green counterpart.

"Remember what we…I mean…I read? Dalas sent that mystery demon, and she knows we weren't here earlier with Red!"

Yellow shook her head in confusion. "Who's Dalas?" she asked Pink Ranger curiously.

Pink Ranger never answered, turning her focus back to the mystery voice. "Where is Red? Is she fighting the other one?"

"You need to get over there! Now!" The new voice demanded, the determination within it being all the answer Olivia could ever ask for.

"Then what are we waiting for?" she said, turning her attention back to her friends. "Let's go even the odds."

* * *

Those odds were stacked heavily against Red Ranger.  
She had no time to recover from being thrown through a building, nor from having her gut constantly pummeled, as now she had to deal with being zapped it with lighting what she predicted to be thousands of times stronger than any lightning bolt we had ever witnessed before.

Her suit erupted in an array of sparks as she crashed downwards to the pavement below once more. Coughing and spurting she gripped the rubble surrounding her in her right fist as she attempted to find the strength within her to even stand, never mind put up a fight.

Beneath the suit, Stephanie's body was screaming in agony. Her favourite tactic of shoot first, ask never was simply not working in this scenario. She needed a new plan, and she needed one now.

Before her, The Vorkah demon was slowly advancing upon her, its right arm extended out, ready to shoot what it predicted would be the final blow. If it could chuckle, it most likely would have done. After all, it had won this battle.  
Hadn't it?

As it advanced further upon Red Ranger, the Vorkah found itself forced backwards by a tremendous wave of energy, causing it to erupt into an array of sparks and smoke. As both it and Red Ranger shot turned their eyes to the roof of the building that Steph had crashed into earlier, on top stood the Blue, Yellow, Pink and Green Rangers, each welding their Power Blades with disk at the hilt.

"Hey!" called Yellow Ranger to the demon. "Remember us?!"

Indeed it did, as it raised its arm up towards them and sent a thunderous bolt of electricity straight for them. Before it came into contact, however, the team of rangers leapt from the building as the electricity made contact with the rooftop itself, creating a large explosion of rubble which gave the rangers momentum, aiding their flight through the air.

"Power Blade, Aquatic Storm!" Blue Ranger yelled, spinning his disk on his word which powered the blade of the weapon up. He swing it through the air, sending a wave of energized water storming towards the demon, which shielded itself using its arms.

The rangers all landed in line between the demon and a rather confused Red Ranger, who was still lying on the ground, struggling to pull herself to her feet. Yellow Ranger scrambled over to her, grabbing her by the right arm and pulling the red warrior up.

"You alright?" Yellow Ranger asked as Red Ranger regained her balance.

"Wha…" Red Ranger mustered out between heavy breaths. "How did you…?"

"A friend of yours told us." Blue Ranger remarked, holding his sword in a defensive stance and keeping his eye forward on the demon. "And a friend of ours did too…"

Stephanie understood only the first part of that statement, which in turn caused her to smirk underneath her helmet. "Drew…" she muttered to herself, reminding herself that of course, her younger brother would always find a way to come through for her.

Pink Ranger turned her head to the side, eyeing Red Ranger out of the corner of her eye. "I read that this thing's pretty powerful." She noted, recalling reading the book Trevor had found in the bookstore. "The five of us, though? I reckon we're more pretty powerful!"

The others looked at her in confusion for merely a second as they pieced together what she was saying. Steph, however, already got the message.

"Well, since you're here…" she said jokingly, attempting to mask the fact that she was glad to see them.

The Vorkah demon roared as it raised both hands into the air, sending streams of electricity to the sky. It was angered - this was not turning out as it expected.

Red Ranger picked up her Power Blade and took her place between Blue and Green Rangers, with Yellow and Pink adorning the right and left of the group.

Finally, all five rangers stood in line before the demonic monster.

The creature shot another beam of electricity towards them, but again it missed them and collided with the rubble behind, causing it to explode as the team of rangers took off running towards the monster, Power Blades in hand.

Within seconds, they were within striking distance and Red took the first shot. The monster blocked her strike, but in doing do, left itself wide open to kicks to the gut by Blue and Green, which sent it staggering back. Pink and Yellow Rangers gave it little recovery time as they swung their weapons, striking it across both its shoulders.

The monster attempted to swipe at the girls, but they ducked, allowing Red Ranger to swing her newly formed Volclancer at the monster, swatting it back as it crashed into a building in a similar manner as it caused Steph to do so earlier. The creature pulled itself free in a matter of seconds, but when it did so, it only saw one ranger – red ranger – standing there awaiting it. As it roared, Blue and Green Ranger stood off to the monster's left, and began spinning their Power Blades' disks rapidly.

"Aquatic Storm!"

"Forest Thunder!"

They swing their weapons through the air, sending their respective energy attacks hurdling towards the monster. It raised its arms to block them, but in doing so turned its back upon Pink and Yellow Rangers, who too began spinning the disks on their weapons.

"Earth Fury!"

"Hurricane Spiral!"

The girls sent their special attacks, which caught the monster straight in the back, causing it to erupt into a series of mini explosions. As it fell to one knee, the four rangers regrouped before it, and Red Ranger somersaulted over them, before swinging her own Power Blade through the air also.

"Burning Tornado!"

She sent her energy wave of fire crashing towards the demon at incredible speed, giving the monster no time to shield itself before it hut. The demon roared as it's body erupted into a series of small sparks before it fell into a large explosion, just as Red Ranger landed on her feet.

Pink, Blue, Yellow and Green Rangers high fived one another in celebration, while Red Ranger rested her Power Blade on her sword as she turned to them briefly, before turning her head back to where the demon had been seconds prior, as Drew's words echoed in her mind once more.

"Hey." Yellow Ranger said as she walked up to her side, catching Red Ranger's attention. "We did pretty damn good, huh?"

Beneath her helmet, and through her pain, Stephanie smiled at the other ranger. She lowered her sword as she recalled her brother's pleas, and assessed the results of what had transpired moments earlier, before turning to the other rangers.

"Do you have some place we can talk?"

* * *

Laura wasn't used to having many people in her store.

That, however, was not an excuse for not keeping it tidy. She whistled to herself as she placed the last of the books used previously for research back in their rightful places on the shelves of the bookstore's upper landing, hoping and praying that any information that she and her rangers had accumulated from them had proved useful helped the rangers be successful.

Little did she know what she was about to find out just how successful they actually were.

She turned her head back towards the door as she heard it open, accompanied by the sound of rather excited voices as well. Making her way down the stairs, she saw something which completely took her breath away. This was not something she had ever expected.

There, standing alongside Johnny, Misha, Olivia and Trevor stood the morphed Red Ranger, glancing around at the various books. As she stared at the stranger, she felt her eyes begin to fill with tears for a split second before blinking them away as Johnny approached her.

"Hey," he said somberly, lowering his eyes to the floor for a second before looking back into her own. "I…I just want to say I'm sorry. You were right…about everything."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "I should've listened to you."

"Yes, you should have." She responded, keeping her tone serious, before a small smile flashed across her face. "It's just a good thing someone contacted the local media station to warn about a loose bear in the Plaza."

This made Johnny smile for the first time in Laura's presence.

"Now…" she said, stepping off the stairs onto the ground floor. "I see we have a guest."

All eyes fell on the Red Ranger, who raised her right hand to the side of her helmet and began


End file.
